WEEKEND COLUMNISTS  |
| Wine expert John Hutton (left) with chef Mark Hix at the latter’s Chop House in London |
Hutton, 58, who looks every inch the schoolteacher and has a rather diffident manner, combines two roles that many would envy: his public role is as managing director of Berry Bros’ wholesale division, Fields, Morris & Verdin, which supplies 130 restaurants across London. He is also the unacknowledged compiler of wine lists for a range of restaurants including The Ivy, Scott’s, Defune and Good Earth Group.
Hutton is quick to play down his importance in the selection process. “I hate to say that I write a restaurant’s wine list. It’s all about the relationship with the restaurateur. Wine lists turn out for the best when they have the full co-operation of the management and the sommeliers.”
As we sit down, he looks across at a blackboard advertising a variety of drinks. “You see that drink that’s listed as a Sophia Sling? Well, it came about because I took some chefs, including Mark Hix, to Portugal a few weeks ago. We were at Quinta de la Rosa in the Douro early one evening and the owner, Sophia Bergqvist, served us a glass of white port and tonic. Everybody loved it but realised that they would have to call it something more exotic if it was going to sell. So here it is.”
Hutton is not alone in his field. Worldwide, there are a number of consultants who advise restaurateurs on their wine lists and there are individuals in other wine companies who offer a similar service. But few can rival him in terms of the quality of his clientele. Nor, perhaps, on the lucky break that set him on his way.
“It was 1980 and I was a young wine salesman dispatched on a fruitless mission to sell wine to The Ritz hotel. I came away, somewhat forlorn, via the staff entrance on to Arlington Street and saw a sign that said, ‘Restaurant Site Acquired’. I asked the foreman who was in charge and he pointed me towards a tall, bearded young man who turned out to be Jeremy King – then planning the opening of Le Caprice. In those days, the main wine suppliers were large companies often owned by the brewers. He wanted a more personal service and that is how my second career began.”
I hand Hutton the wine list and ask him to choose a bottle that epitomises not just what makes his job so much fun but also reflects the tastes and flavours that diners are looking for. He promptly asks the waiter for a bottle of Les Obriers de la Pèira 2006 from the Languedoc in south-west France (£31.75 a bottle).
Before elaborating on its particular charms, he offers his views on why restaurant wine lists have never been better. The most important factor, Hutton believes, is that restaurants can now print their wine lists in-house so there is little risk of the customer being misled by a change in the vintage. Then, there is the growing tendency among chefs to simplify their dishes, to allow no more than the three or four different ingredients on the plate to be enjoyed to the full – a process that has the same consequences for the wine. Hutton’s definition of an excellent meal is astute – can you remember precisely what you ate and drank 24 hours afterwards?
Hutton says that to make it on to one of his lists, a wine should have soft tannins and juicy fruit that does not fight the food. He wants an elegant feel in the mouth that encompasses a range of flavours including savoury, salty and tangy. Most importantly, the wines must have good, natural acidity.
The growing challenge for him is how to pare down so many good wines to fit into restaurants with increasingly limited cellar space. The new list at Scott’s, which went through 15 different drafts, has 150 wines, selected from a tasting of more than 300. Mark Hix, on the other hand, likes to be able to have a list that fits on just one side of paper.
The Languedoc red Hutton has chosen copes admirably with our deep-fried sand eels with tartare sauce, a hanger steak with bone marrow and a mildly spicy curry of Herdwick lamb. Hutton relates the wine’s history. “It comes from a property bought by Robert Dougan, an engaging Australian whose initial career was composing music featured in The Matrix, and I was tipped off to it by Andrew Jefford, the wine writer [and contributor to the FT]. Their first vintage was 2006 but it is beginning to be well-reviewed in the US, which can only mean that the price will go up.”
As I pay the bill, Hutton’s wine judgement is reinforced by an unlikely source. The waitress, at least 35 years his junior, looks at the empty bottle on our table and says: “That’s my favourite. I order it whenever we eat here.”
nicholas.lander@ft.com
More columns at www.ft.com/lander
..........
Details
Fields, Morris & Verdin: www.fmvwines.com
Hix Oyster & Chop House www.hixoysterandchophouse.co.uk
