SIMPLE PLEASURES

Published 20th June 2025

One of the few irksome things about fine wine culture – apart from its pretence, and its propensity for snobbery – is the sheer cost of getting through the front door. Whereas anyone wanting to explore the best in art, for example, has access to Kahlo and Caravaggio at their fingertips, few people will ever have the means to taste the world’s most fabled crus. Which is why ‘The Wines They Don’t Want You to Know’, Noble Rot 38’s tongue-in-cheek cover feature, is a coup for readers looking for world-class wines with a limited budget. Having persuaded a crew of leading sommeliers, chefs, restaurateurs and wine writers to reveal their single favourite most undervalued bottle, it’s an eminently usable centrepiece to this issue’s theme of ‘simple pleasures’, featuring characterful cuvées from places like Rueda, Muscadet, the Itata Valley and Gers (us neither – apparently it’s in south-west France).

Elsewhere in Noble Rot 38’s celebration of everyday miracles…

…Felicity Cloake lauds salt as the most important element in good cooking, Simon Hopkinson revels in the perfection of eggs and Stephen Harris asks why many diners consider drinking anything other than filtered tap water to be a pretentious waste of time.

…Dan Keeling profiles the Basque Country’s Txakoli and meets the growers reinvigorating Chianti Classico and Rioja, Alice Feiring celebrates house wine, Slutty Cheff reveals her homely delights and The Yellow Bittern’s Hugh Corcoran hails a plate of home-grown green beans dressed in butter as the perfect lunch.

 …We raise a glass to the art of the leisurely lunch in ‘Wine, Dine, Recline, Repeat’. Featuring Fergus and Margot Henderson, Philippa Perry, Gary Lineker and a cast of other Rotters, it’s the next best thing to being able to go AWOL for a day of hedonistic pleasures.

…We hear about Le Bernardin NYC’s Eric Ripert’s Greatest Meal, Keira Knightley tells us about her shellfish antidote to Fashion Week and we feature stories about Bangkok’s burgeoning wine scene and German Chardonnay, in addition to offering a gastronomic guide to the Basque Country, among much more.

Cover by Jose Mendez.