Review at Rathfinny Wine Estate – a menu that’s more than wine

The Tasting Room at Rathfinny has been on my radar for a while. Here’s the lowdown…

Let’s start with the amazing setting. One of the things I loved immediately about Rathfinny is that although a large portion of the estate can’t be used for vines, instead of forcing cultivation or some way to extract money from the land, they’ve allowed those areas to flourish as wildflower meadows. They’re full of biodiversity, indigenous plants, and natural beauty. How lovely?

I went with my dear old chum Adrienne – who, apart from being excellent company – is v knowledgeable about wine, and works at Bolney Vineyard. She wasn’t there as a mole, just to reassure anyone reading this. But I thought she’d be an excellent buddy for this particular experience, for several reasons.

The Tasting Room itself is light and breezy, with a fantastic balcony that wraps around the building. From here, the views stretch across the vines, making it a genuinely special spot to enjoy lunch. It manages to feel both smart and upmarket while still being incredibly relaxed – elegance meets low-key charm.

The menu is made up of snacks, small plates, and large plates, and is designed to be shared, and to be sociable. Think British tapas. We couldn’t decide what to have, so we put down our menus, put our trust in the team at the restaurant, and told them to just feed us. Our meal was in their hands.

We were looked after by Jake and Caitlin, both of whom were friendly and professional. But more importantly, clearly knowledgeable about the estate, the food, the wine, and how it all works. Great advice on wine from Jake, lots of information about the production. Good choices made for us on both the food and wine front. This shows evidence that the staff are well-supported, well-advised, and have pride in their work. Always a good sign.

Drinks

As this is at Rathfinny, let’s talk about the wines first. We had a couple of glasses of fizz to start with – the Classic Cuvee 2019, which was quite honeyed and a slightly biscuity warm colour (reminded me quite a lot of Veuve) – and the Blanc de Blanc 2019, which was more lemony. Both excellent, and perfect for the snacks, echoing the light, citrussy feel of many of the dishes.

As the meal progressed, we moved on to still wines, again trying two different glassfuls, both from Cradle Valley, Rathfinny’s sister estate. We had the Pinot Gris, which was bright and light, and again quite a lemony mouthful. But the Rosé was the star of the show here. This is an elegant dry wine, with hints of summer fruits, and a beautiful colour. Utterly divine.

When it came to cheese and pud, we felt it our business to try the sweet wine on the list, which is the Rathfinny Rosé Sec. This is a gently sweet wine with a light fizz – more a frizzante, if you will. Not overly sweet, one could easily quaff this as a super-chilled aperitif. But it’s a cracking partner for afters, particularly cheese – just sweet enough.

Snacks

Kicked off with their famous homemade grape and rosemary focaccia, with olive oil to dunk. Worth every bit of its reputation. I tried hard not to eat tons of bread and spoil my appetite but no dice. That stuff is insanely good.

There was a kind of heavenly whipped ricotta dish with lemon oil, little flowers, and pine nuts. So delicate and light. A perfect foil for the rich herby bread.

And salt cod croquettes, with a kind of citrus mayo and a slither of lemon flesh on top. Probably our favourite small bite of the whole day. I could eat a whole plate of these fishy, crunchy little darlings.

Deep fried nduja lasagne was our final snack. A bit hefty, this one. Still delish, but slightly at odds with the light elegance of the other options.

Small plates

We were both pleased to see the Curing Rebels aged ham with celeriac remoulade and grapes hit the table. The ham is aged using coffee grounds, or something like that. Neither of us really understood this, but the ham is delicious! More please.

We also had fatly generous slices of smoked trout, with elderflower pickled cucumber, crème fraiche and the sexiest puddle of green fennel oil. The trout is smoked on site, where the estate never wastes any resources. In fact, the trout we had that day had been smoked over the cuttings from the chef’s mum’s plum tree. Nothing goes to waste on site. If you can’t eat or drink it, they find another way to use it. Bravo.

The final dish here was the English asparagus, chicken, chicken fat aioli, shredded peppery radishes, with a plump half soft-ish boiled egg. No idea which one came first, but I know this went down fast. Standout aspects of this plate of chickeny deliciousness were the light and crispy skin on the chicken, and the bitey firm asparagus spears.

Large plates

We were thrilled when the large plate they chose for us turned out to be the fish of the day. And our fish was a sturdy wodge of halibut. Dreamily fresh and served with samphire, herb oil and seaweed butter, this was a substantial dish which we happily saw off. The choice of tahini and za’atar broccoli and Jersey Royals with salsa verde as sides was perfect. I don’t know what else I can tell you. The fish was cooked to succulent flakiness, and everything else was perfect. Can I write that in a review? I guess I just did.

Afters

Neither of us have a terribly sweet tooth, but felt we should try something in the name of research. So between us we decided to share a three-cheese plate, and the sorbet (peach) with Seven Sisters gin, which is also a Rathfinny product.

I’d assumed it would be a gin-based sorbet but it’s actually balls of sorbet with gin to pour over. A little random perhaps, but fun – I’d have loved it more perhaps if the gin had been ice cold rather than room temp, but perhaps that’s deliberate. The sorbet was lush, regardless. The cheese plate however was an absolute corker. They get their cheeses from Neal’s Yard, and we had Coolea (a bit like good Gouda), Ragstone Goat, and Devon Blue, with crackers and a nice slice of quince paste (membrillo). We cleared the lot.

After our food

Tummies full, we meandered slowly round to the estate shop and bought wines and olives, before heading back. Worth noting perhaps is that you really need to drive to Rathfinny, so someone has to be car monitor. Unless of course you stay at one of the new(ish) B&B Flint Barns or Sussex Cottage they have on site.

We can think of much worse ways to wake up than looking at that view. Plus you’re allowed to take dogs, and we’ve seen the breakfast menu.

When can we go back?

Rathfinny Estate