REVIEW : 'Getting into Wine with Fiona Beckett' at Hawksmoor

Can you believe that Hawksmoor has been open in Edinburgh for two years already??? It took up residence in the former National Bank of Scotland Banking Hall on St Andrews Square and is the restaurant for The Edinburgh Grand.

It’s a Grade A listed ‘building of national importance’. The 185 cover restaurant has been sensitively refurbished to celebrate the building’s original features and what an excellent job they have done in this vast space.

I was invited along to celebrate the launch of their new private dining spaces, The Tellers Room and the Mclellan Room with a food and wine pairing event held in the Tellers Room hosted by Guardian food and wine writer and author, Fiona Beckett.

The Tellers’ Room is an elegant light-filled events space seating up to 48 diners or 60 people standing and The McLellan Room hosts up to 12 guests around one grand dining table.

Both spaces are private, whilst looking into the restaurant, and are ideal for friends and family feasts, wedding parties, business events, celebrations or pure pleasure. The Tellers Room would have been the heart of the bank where tellers received and paid out cash to the public. The restored space has beautiful proportions with limestone walls, original window settings, natural light, reclaimed parquet flooring and leather bound seating.

Fiona Beckett is a Bristol based writer and food journalist who regularly writes for The Guardian. She is a leading expert in food and has written 23 books on these subjects. She is also mum to Will Beckett, one of the founding members of Hawksmoor.

This evening, Fiona kindly told us about how she got ‘into wine’ and the best advise is just to ‘drink it’. She paired the menu with a choice of Hawksmoor wines, some contrasting and some complimenting the dishes explaining that this is the best way to learn what you like and how you like it.

Nicolas Choblet ‘Pavillion’ Muscadet 2017 - Filled with tropical fruit flavours with pineapple at the fore, slightly minerally but rich. Pairs superbly with seafood and fish in a sauce.

Journeys End, Chardonnay 2017 - A new world South African wine, quite citrus-ey, with a lot of lemon and a hint of vanilla. Good to note that this is a vegan wine.

Te Whare Ra ‘TWR’ Sauvignon Blanc 2018 - From the well know Marlborough region of New Zealand, its vegan and its organic. It’s fresh and subtle with the citrus notes rounded rather than sharp, nice amount of acidity and well balanced.

Any of these wines will pair well with the four starters below.

Natural Oysters - salty and briney. Lovely, fresh and correctly cleaned and presented.

Isle of Mull Scallops with roasted white port and garlic - these were insanely good and you’ll be asking for bread to dunk into that port and garlic sauce.

Armstrong’s smoked salmon with crowdie and soda bread - thin slithers of smoked salmon doesn’t come any better than this.

Radish and herb salad with goat’s curd, radishes and sourdough crisp - another seriously great dish even although its a salad. Zingy, peppery and fresh picking up on the citrus flavours in all the wines.

Pulenta Estate ‘Hawksmoor Blend’ Malbec 2016 - Loved this! intense full bodied red wine lots of red plum and cherry notes on the nose and blackberry, black cherry, plum on the palate.

Raul Perez ‘El Castro de Valtuille’ Mencia 2017 - Very aromatic with lots of red berries, some pepper and some minerality on the palate. Light on the tannins and a perfect partner to red meat and venison.

Lopez deHerredia ‘Vina Tondonia’ Reserva 2005 - This is a deep rich red wine with leather, spices and cherries. It has a long finish that you’ll want to savour. Delicious.

All these reds as perfectly paired with the meats below. I particularly loved the Hawksmoor Malbec as it appealed to my tastebuds and my love of juicy red fruity wines. The Mencia was also a big hit on the night - its all down to a matter of preference.

Luing Sirloin.

Absolute meat heaven. Thick slices of unbelievably tender and super tasty steaks from sirloin to the chateaubriand and the prime rib. Hawksmoor assure us that they work with farms in England and Scotland sourcing ethical dry-aged beef from native breeds that live a good life eating their natural food – grass. You can tell, as the meat is seriously great!

So many delicious sides to choose from, some are shown below.

Butter lettuce salad

Buttered greens as well as Spinach with lemon and garlic.

Tunworth mash and Triple cooked chips

Chateaubriand

MacDuff Shorthorn bone-in prime rib

Bone Marrow

Quinta de Vallado 10yo Tawny - Velverty and tastes like Christmas pudding in a glass with dried fruits, orange and praline.

Charles Hours ‘Clos Uroulat’ Jurancon Doux 2016 - This one is like a fruit cocktail with scents of lychee and mango

Another successful pairing. I’d put the port with the Sticky Toffee Pudding - the orange and praline will compliment the dates and the toffee/chocolate in the cake and sauce; whilst the Charles Hours of fruity cocktail will go with the passionfruit pavlova, enhancing the fruitness of both the wine and dessert.

Passionfruit Pavlova

Sticky Toffee Pudding

A superb night of eating, drinking and chatting. The Tellers Room is a great space and you don’t feel isolated from the main restaurant like you do in so many places that have private dining areas. Doors open at either end of the room, so you can bring the restaurant in, or close the doors and it’s fairly sound proof making the space intimate and more private.

There is ample space to walk around and for me a super space for Christmas parties, birthday parties or a private corporate function where you require a venue for a formal talk followed by lunch or dinner.

I cannot fault the food nor the wine and can only thank Fiona Beckett for the wine wisdom, Hawksmoor for the food coma (my happy place) and Stripe Communications for yet another successful event highlighting the best of food and drink in Edinburgh.

Hawksmoor, 23 West Register Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2AA. Tel : 0131 526 4790 www.thehawksmoor.com/locations/edinburgh/

My Spoon Award : Tartan Spoon 10/10