TEN HOTELS FOR FINE WINE LOVERS

There was a time when wine-drinking in Britain was either very expensive and shrouded in mists of snobbery, or cheap and downright unpleasant. Those of us who wrecked our student-years trying to enjoy the dreaded trio of Liebfraumilch, Piesporter and Blue Nun were almost put off wine for life. How things have changed! Britain is now a country that not only enjoys wine (despite punitive government levies) but understands it, thanks to the eminently sensible innovation of putting coherent and useful information on the label. With the progress of good wine shops and good wine bars has come the revolution in hotel cellars. No longer does a hotel wine list run to a few dusty bottles of claret in the basement and some lukewarm, over-oaked chardonnay, many British hotels are now temples to viticulture. Here are just a few of my personal recommendations.