Tamarind Mayfair, Wine & Me
Tamarind Mayfair
20 Queen St, London W1J 5PR
“The finest Indian Restaurant in London”
As many of you know, I have worked in the wine trade for 37 years. While I now specialise in writing for matthewjukes.com, I have been fortunate to work in all sides of the wine business, from retail, wholesaling, buying, and for 30 of these years, I wrote wine lists for some of the most exciting and respected restaurants in the country. The pandemic wrought its unique destruction on our beloved restauration, and this period marked the end of my restaurant consultancies.
Late last year, Fateh Dhaliwal, director of the Tamarind Collection of restaurants (including Tamarind, Tamarind Kitchen, and Zaika) asked me to review his wine lists. While visiting the restaurant, I bumped into a handful of familiar faces in the front-of-house brigade and the kitchen (Chef Karunesh, pictured above, opened Amaya, where I wrote the wine list many years ago). With the A-Team in the building and Fateh’s clear determination to bring the finest wines possible to this stunning destination, it took me no time at all to accept his kind offer. I have spent the last couple of months trimming and honing the collection at Tamarind and Tamarind Kitchen, and Zaika will get the Jukes treatment in time for the autumn. Matching great wine to inspired Indian cuisine requires an open mind and an understanding of the complex layers of flavour on the menu. I have been lucky to write extensively about wine and food-matching, and I have immense pleasure in applying this experience to such a glorious restaurant group. As a great friend of mine said to me just the other day, “Tamarind is the finest Indian restaurant in London”, and he is not wrong. Furthermore, I look forward to making its list as enticing as the menu. I encourage you to check it out. I hope you will discover that this is one of Mayfair’s most beautiful dining rooms, filled with excellent staff, epic food, and delicious wine.
Finally, here is my introduction to the wine list at Tamarind
I have had the pleasure of compiling restaurant wine lists for over three decades while also writing extensively about food and wine pairing.
My love for elite Indian cuisine started twenty-five years ago when I wrote a series of wine lists that were regarded as breaking new ground in matching sensational Indian dishes with carefully selected fine wine. I have very much enjoyed working with many of the Tamarind brigade over the years. The exquisite recipes in this incredible restaurant layer magical flavours over stunning ingredients, and this is the reason why I jumped at the chance to renew my relationship with Tamarind.
As you leaf through this wine list, you will see cutting-edge, modern, expressive wines rub shoulders with top-notch, benchmark classics. Every wine has been selected for its innate compatibility with the depth of intriguing flavours found on the thrilling Tamarind menus. I have organised this list into style sections and included some tasting notes for our amazing wines served by the glass to help guide you to the perfect wines for your palate.
Matthew Jukes
