Restaurants: dinner at La Trompette, Chiswick, with three interesting wines
Website: https://www.latrompette.co.uk/
La Trompette is one of my favourite restaurants in London. Tucked away in Chiswick, it has an upmarket neighbourhood feel. Fine dining in smart casual clothes, doing everything effortlessly and beautifully. They’ve had a well deserved Michelin star for as long as I can remember.
I dined there last night with a couple of good friends, and we each bought a bottle. La Trompette has an excellent wine list, but on Sunday nights it’s free corkage for one 75 cl bottle each. This softens the bill a little bit, because this isn’t a cheap eat: the dinner menu is £95, for which you get three courses, with six options for each. There are no other menu options, and I quite like this simplicity.
Their nomal corkage policy is delightfully straightforward and appropriately priced. It’s £50 for dinner, £25 for lunch, and you need to inform them of your intent on booking. But the list is broad and excellent, so there’s little need for this unless you have a special bottle.
The food is immaculate, and you can’t go far wrong. For an £8.50 supplement I had the lobster and scallop tortellini with a beautiful bisque. This was impeccable and utterly delicious.
And because of the wines we’d bought, I went for the lamb option (lamb loin and crisp belly, courgettes, gnocchi, peppers, anchovy and garlic). It’s a complex plate, but everything earns its place there, and tastes superb.
For dessert it’s hard to look past the raspberry souffle.
We began with a Spanish white that’s new to me:
Alemany i Corrió ‘Cargol Treu Vi’ 2023 Penedès, Spain
This is Xarel.lo from old bush vines planted in limestone soils, raised in 300 litre French oak barrels, 25% new. It’s rich but taut with a hint of reduction on the nose, and textured pear and peach fruit with lovely depth, and then some spicy framing. It’s made in a lower acid style, and is textured and full. 93/100
Then a comparison between Napa and Bordeaux. Quite different, but both beautiful.
Clos du Marquis 2014 Saint-Julien, Bordeaux
13.5% alcohol. A sister estate to Léoville Las Cases. Fresh and taut, and showing lovely aromatics. Lovely black cherry and blackcurrant fruit with some chalky definition. So textural with ripe fruit and also structure and spice, showing beautiful tension and balance. 95/100
Mayacamas Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 Napa, California
This is sleek and ripe with lovely smooth but well defined blackcurrant fruit. So expressive and floral with nice depth and intensity. There’s some richer olive and meaty character in the background. This shows real finesse. 95/100
