Ruth Carter and Steve Bellman.
Good food needs good wine to accompany it – so we stock and sell a lot of wine! To ensure we have a really good range of wines to suit everyone, we have been busy expanding our wine list. Steve Bellman, who runs the Pandora with John Milan, is really passionate about wine and has been working closely with Ruth Carter, wine development manager with wine merchant Walter Hicks, to bring you a really stunning wine list.
“We stock a wide range of red, white and rosé wines, plus sparkling and dessert and we aim to have something to suit every pocket and every palate,” says Steve. “We have also spent time identifying organic and vegetarian wines, plus those that are sustainable practices accredited and produced with environmental considerations.”
English wine production has come on leaps and bounds over recent years and the quality keeps getting better and better. We now boast over 400 producers with an annual production of two million bottles. As we are committed to supporting local producers at the Pandora, it will come as no surprise that we have a whole section devoted to wines from our region. “The South West is becoming an established wine growing area and local sparkling wines are proving especially successful and winning international awards,” says Ruth. “Cornish producers Knightor Winery and Camel Valley are extremely popular and produce first-class white wines.”
To help ensure you find the right wine to accompany your meal, our waiting staff all receive wine training. Ruth was at the Pandora earlier this month and we had a great morning in the Upper Deck dining room tasting and discussing the new wine list and yes, the staff got to taste every wine! “The staff at the Pandora are always so enthusiastic, it’s great to see and makes my job more rewarding,” said Ruth. “We discuss the different grape types and they get to smell and taste the wines and it’s interesting to see their reactions and which wines they do and don’t like.”
Ruth Carter taking staff through the entire Pandora wine list!
Wines, or grapes, go in and out if fashion. On trend at the moment, Ruth says, is Viognier for white wine and Malbec for red. We have laid out our wine list so that the grape type is listed first, so if you know you like Chardonnay, or Shiraz, it is easy for you to spot them on the list. But why not try something different next time? We include extensive descriptions on the wine list, or you could always ask one of our staff for some suggestions.
You will find our full wine list on the website and we also have large print and Braille versions at the pub should you need them, please just ask our staff.