Dinner in the Dog

Clapham Junction isn’t the first place you’d think of heading to discover one of the best winelists in London, but it’s worth making the short trip from Victoria or Waterloo stations to visit The Greyhound. As the name suggests, it’s a pub but, like an increasing number these days, a pub in name only. It’s more of a fine dining destination.
Owner Mark van der Goot, an ebullient Aussie who looks as if he’d be more at home punching down grapes in an open top fermenter, made his name at the Greenhouse where I remember him coming up with some very assured food and wine matches. After a brief sojourn out of town at the Stonor Arms, near Henley he and his wife Sharlyn headed back to town to set up their own place. He picked Battersea on the slightly unscientific basis that he knew several sommeliers who lived in the area and that there were already some good wineshops nearby. “And the demographics were right. We were looking to attract young couples with a high disposable income for whom wine had become a hobby. Picking a pub was purely a financial consideration. It was the least expensive way to start up and the great thing about old pubs is the massive cellar space.”
From day one there has been a daily selection of 20-plus wines by the glass, constantly changing according to van der Goot’s mood and current enthusiasms. “I get bored more than anything else. Generally it’s a question of what I think is drinking well though I have had a thing about Cabernet Franc recently.”
The wine list itself is divided up by grape variety and includes many obscure bottles such as a Swiss Pinot Blanc Auslese, Austrian Zweigelt and South African Zinfandel as well as cult wines and older vintages from boutique Australian wineries that van der Goot ships from his own cellar. There’s also a spectacular ‘Super Rare’ list of top Bordeaux and Burgundy, some of which run into four figures. Isn’t there resistance to spending that much in a pub? “Oh no, the people who come here are used to the best restaurants in London.”
At lunchtime each dish is matched with wine. I sample a capocollo (Italian cured pork) carpaccio with rocket, fennel and parmesan with a 2002 Firesteed Pinot Gris and spicy Label Anglais chicken rillette with a 2004 Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt ‘RK’ Mosel. Both add a touch of sweetness to their respective dishes, almost like a fruit sauce or chutney. Van der Goot likes whites with residual sugar. “The English have a real mental block about off-dry wines but once they actually taste them they love them.”
He also has a passion for Italian reds. He pairs a robust dish of Herdwick mutton rump and lentils with salsa verde with a heavyweight Barbera d’Alba ‘Valetta’ 2000 from Claudio Alario - an inspired match that enhances both the wine and the dish. He looks pleased when I tell him. “I bought it six months ago and it was really closed. Six months later and it’s just singing out of the glass”.
Like most enthusiasts he can’t resist showing off his dessert wine list partnering a superb Alois Kracher Beerenauslese 2004 (“a real bargain” at £8.50 a glass) with a simple roast conference pear and praline ice cream.
So how does he come up with the matches? They evolve naturally, he says, from the close working relationship he has developed with his chef, fellow Australian Tomislav Martinovic. “I have a good idea of the flavours in his food. I don’t generally have to taste a dish to come up with a good match although Tom is very good at using acidity to balance his dishes which forces you to be a bit more creative. That’s where the residual sugar comes in.”
Some matches are just pure serendipity. “The other day at home we were drinking the 2004 ‘Chery’ Condrieu from André Perret and found it went beautifully with a tom yum soup. I’d have thought the spice would have knocked it out but it didn’t.”
If he has a philosophy of matching food to wine - and he usually works that way round - it is that you should pick out the two most prevalent flavours on the nose and then connect them to a dish.” Like the apple and citrus in Chenin with pork? “Exactly.”
The food at the Greyhound has recently been simplified. “Chef isn’t very happy because he wants to get a Michelin star” admits van der Goot “but when you’re focussing on wine, the simpler the food is the better. The ingredients have to be top notch though. If people are coming along to have mutton and mash it’s got to be the best mash they’ve ever had in their life. Fortunately Tom worked with Robuchon.”
He has now started a wine club for the more avid winelovers among his customers, offering regular tastings, food and wine matching dinners and the chance to buy scarce wines on their list. “We have some amazing new producers coming through that our customers don’t necessarily come into contact with and whose wines we can offer at a good price.” He doesn’t want it to get too formal and stuff, though. “At the end of the day it’s only grape juice” reads the cover of the winelist
On the bitingly cold grey day I interview him I wonder if he has yearnings to go back Down Under? Not remotely tempted, it appears. “You’re not going to find something obscure from the Lebanon or a garagiste wine from Penedes in Australia. If you’re really into wine London is the best place in the world to be.”

The Greyhound is at 136 Battersea High Street, London SW11 3JR. Tel: 020 7978 7021. www.thegreyhoundatbattersea.co.uk

This article was first published in Decanter in March 2006