Chewton Glen

The World’s Best Wine Lists senior judge Andrew Jefford enjoyed himself while perusing the wine list at Chewton Glen. The five-star luxury hotel and spa in Hampshire has, Jefford said, “magnificent range. It’s a very fine list. Very complete, very eclectic (with Armenian wine among other things). A wonderful English wine speciality; it’s outstanding.”

All of those attributes served to help Chewton Glen earn a three-star award from Jefford and his co-judges for a list that ranges widely and discriminatingly across the world. But if those judges were to pick out a single section of the list that separates Chewton Glenn from its peers, then that section would be the collection of dessert and fortified wines, which earned the restaurant a place on the shortlist for Best Dessert & Fortified Wine List in Europe.

There are more than 130 different bins, starting with multiple vintages of top Sauternes, moving through the sweet wines of Alsace, the Loire, southern France, Germany, Austria, Tokaj, and Italy, but also including unexpected choices from Ukraine, Slovenia, China, Canada, Israel, California, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. It is, in other words, extensive, even before you reach the collection of mature Vintage and Tawny Port. As Jefford said, “Stay the night and let rip!”