WILD is bringing back its popular wine dinner series this September, with the first taking place on Thursday 24 September in collaboration with Boutinot, one of the UK’s leading wine importers and producers.
Chef-Patron Matt Larcombe and Head Sommelier Rémi Cousin have worked together to create a five-course menu with accompanying wines, while Master Sommelier Nigel Wilkinson will host the evening, guiding guests through the bottles and sharing the people, places and stories behind them.
The wine line-up will take guests from East Sussex to Australia, South Africa, Italy and the Rhône, with bottles including Henners Classic Cuvée, Heaphy Riesling from Clare Valley, Wildeberg White from Franschhoek, La Battistina Nuovo Quadro Gavi del Comune di Gavi, Domaine Boutinot Cairanne ‘Les Six’, Circumstance Mourvèdre from Stellenbosch and Alasia Moscato d’Asti.
Matt’s menu has been designed to complement the wines while reflecting the shift from late summer into early autumn. Following seasonal snacks and bread and butter, dishes will include scallop carpaccio with oyster, chilli and citrus; roasted cauliflower with caramelised butter, cheddar, apple and pickled walnut; roasted confit duck with duck-fat roasted carrots; and vanilla panna cotta with farm fruit crumble.
Produce grown specifically for WILD by Head Grower Jude Allen will also make its way onto the menu depending on what is ready to harvest from the restaurant’s farm.
Taking place in WILD’s intimate Kitchen Room, guests will have a front-row view of Matt and the kitchen team at work as each course is prepared. Part dinner, part masterclass and part social evening, the wine dinners are designed to make discovering wine interesting without making it intimidating.
Throughout the evening, Nigel will introduce each wine and delve into the growers, regions and philosophies behind the bottles, from smaller characterful producers to long-standing partnerships within the Boutinot family.
For Rémi, bringing the dinners back is also an opportunity to share more of what goes into WILD’s wine programme and introduce guests to producers and bottles they may not come across every day.
Rémi says:
“We’ve really missed doing these dinners. They give us a chance to open some great bottles, talk about why we love them and have a bit of fun pairing them with Matt’s food. Boutinot has such a huge range of wines, so it felt like a really good place to start the series again. Mostly, we just want people to come, enjoy dinner and hopefully find a new wine they love.”
The Boutinot evening will be the first of a new run of wine dinners at WILD, with further dates and producers to be announced.