It has always surprised me that chefs who make their living from creating delicious food seem, by and large, uninterested in what to drink with it. There are exceptions, of course – always have been. Mark Hix, Mitch Tonks and Rowley Leigh immediately spring to mind, as does the team at St John – though that’s as much due to its ebullient co-owner Trevor Gulliver, who has built a range of own-label wines worthy of any small merchant’s list, as the kitchen itself.
That said, there’s lately been a bit of a trend for chefs to bring out their own wines, either as an extension of their brand – who doesn’t love a bit of merch? – or in planting actual vineyards, as Michael Caines has in Devon and Robin Hutson (admittedly a restaurateur rather than a chef) at The Pig in the South Downs. Most are pretty mainstream, though the Banks brothers in Yorkshire have made innovative use of cans, and Gordon Ramsay and Rick Stein are both long-term collaborators with the British-owned Chateau Bauduc in Bordeaux. Nuno Mendes, meanwhile, has just launched a range of wines with Portuguese producer Niepoort, and José Pizarro recently put his name to a really excellent cava (see today’s pick).
