Back to stories

WINE WINS FOR NEW FOREST RESTAURANT

December 2001

A New Forest restaurant’s wine list has received a top accolade in a nationwide survey, way ahead of some of this country’s best-known establishments.

Five hundred wine lists were selected by Hotel & Restaurant magazine to produce “the first definitive statistics” about the wines served in British restaurants, awarding “89 as Commended, 34 worthy of Highly Commended and 19 for our top grade of Excellent”.

The Nurse’s Cottage in Sway is one of the top-rated lists, beating restaurants run by such celebrated chefs as Raymond Blanc and Gordon Ramsay. And chef/proprietor Tony Barnfield has also won one of five prizes for wine tasting at the London International Wine Trade Fair – for the second year running! Last year, he won his weight in wine, while this time he was the proud recipient of two jeroboams of Champagne Jacquart.

These wine awards are the latest in a succession of successes for the tiny three-bedroom, eighteen-seater restaurant with rooms. Last year, the wine list was named one of the top three in Johansens Country Houses and Small Hotels contest. Scoring the top 5 Diamond classification by hotel inspectors, the English Tourism Council includes The Nurse’s Cottage among its elite Gold Award holders. Tony has twice been a finalist in the AA Landlady of the Year competition and currently holds the AA Best Breakfast in Britain title. One of the RAC’s forty Little Gems in Britain and Ireland, the establishment has also received every one of their other awards: 2 Dining Seals, Warm Welcome for hospitality, and a Sparkling Diamond for housekeeping and cleanliness. And the business is among a handful in the New Forest found in select guides such as Michelin, Which? Hotel Guide, Time Out and Thomas Cook.

What is the secret of success for Tony Barnfield (52), who was a BBC Radio presenter for many years before moving to Hampshire? “It probably helps coming into this business fairly late. Unlike many in the industry, I have been a customer most of my life and have picked up ideas from the many places I have visited. How often have you been to a wonderful restaurant, wonderful that is apart from the toilets? Or a hotel with beautiful public areas but dreadful bedrooms and poor facilities? The secret is to aim for excellence in everything, and doing that seems to push us out in front every time.”

The next challenge? “We introduce our newly-revised wine list every September, so I just hope that the new selection will prove to be yet another prize winner!”

site by aack