Wine list of the week: Starling
Douglas Blyde visits Starling in Surrey, finding the Michelin-starred restaurant to "brimming to the gunwales with wine" – however, the "gimmickry" of some dishes leaves him cold. The post Wine list of the week: Starling appeared first on The Drinks Business.
Douglas Blyde visits Starling in Surrey, finding the Michelin-starred restaurant to "brimming to the gunwales with wine" – however, the "gimmickry" of some dishes leaves him cold.
Named after a songbird long symbolising community, unity, family and relationships - sacred to both Celts and Romans - Starling announces itself with a royal blue frontage at the start of Esher High Street. "You can’t miss it," noted SquareMeal of the former car showroom turned Costa, turned Michelin-starred bistro. Inside, a flock of hammered metal starlings hovers from the ceiling. At the helm is Nick Beardshaw, long at Tom Kerridge’s side and formerly head chef at The Coach in Marlow, where he earned a Michelin star in 2017, then Kerridge’s Bar & Grill at The Corinthia.
He also triumphed on Great British Menu in 2023. Two dishes from that televised gauntlet remain: ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’, featuring Orkney scallop in Thai green curry, and ‘Balloon Girl’, which William Sitwell in The Telegraph found "clunky…in need of a heavy tome of explanation" – a judgement which might be said of Sitwell himself. He swerved them, "as I do the TV when I hear that plodding, swamp-like music". Michelin, however, was seduced, awarding a star within five months for "seemingly straightforward dishes" delivered with "technical skill and balance". Country & Town House called Starling "a polished bistro with slick service", posing the question: "Is this Surrey’s best new restaurant?"
A sirloin ensued, on the bone, having been aged for 30 days in Himalayan salt, and sourced from HG Walter, the West London butcher known for its relationships with small British farms, focus on native breeds, ethical husbandry, and precise dry-ageing. No one asked how we wanted it, which was fine by us, and it arrived properly rare, with a deep crust and a mineral, almost marine, tender centre. A snowy salad accompanied. To drink: Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona “385” Rosso Toscana 2018 – a composed blend led by Sangiovese, with Merlot, Ciliegiolo, and Syrah adding softness, lift, and a brush of spice. Rooted in Tuscan tradition but trimmed with modern edges, it was also the wine Shaw served at his wedding. (He’ll mark his anniversary at Dorian).
Dessert came in two parts. First, Balloon Girl - Beardshaw’s other Great British Menu creation - named after Banksy’s once-iconic mural, now better remembered for its self-destruction. Here, the reference was intact while the execution was poised: a raspberry and rose cheesecake, a chocolate raspberry torte, and a blackcurrant pâte de fruit. Then an Amalfi lemon tart with raspberry coulis and Isigny crème fraîche, was measured and bright; there was nothing to decode. Two pours accompanied: Sandeman 20-Year-Old Tawny, drawn from a strikingly large bottle, which evoked heavily roasted nuts and various dried fruits, and the far better-made wine from a warm year – Château Liot 2003, which brought honeyed lift and structure. At £15 per 100ml, it was priced as if ordered two decades ago.
Named after a songbird long symbolising community, unity, family and relationships - sacred to both Celts and Romans - Starling announces itself with a royal blue frontage at the start of Esher High Street. "You can’t miss it," noted SquareMeal of the former car showroom turned Costa, turned Michelin-starred bistro. Inside, a flock of hammered metal starlings hovers from the ceiling. At the helm is Nick Beardshaw, long at Tom Kerridge’s side and formerly head chef at The Coach in Marlow, where he earned a Michelin star in 2017, then Kerridge’s Bar & Grill at The Corinthia.
He also triumphed on Great British Menu in 2023. Two dishes from that televised gauntlet remain: ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’, featuring Orkney scallop in Thai green curry, and ‘Balloon Girl’, which William Sitwell in The Telegraph found "clunky…in need of a heavy tome of explanation" – a judgement which might be said of Sitwell himself. He swerved them, "as I do the TV when I hear that plodding, swamp-like music". Michelin, however, was seduced, awarding a star within five months for "seemingly straightforward dishes" delivered with "technical skill and balance". Country & Town House called Starling "a polished bistro with slick service", posing the question: "Is this Surrey’s best new restaurant?"
Drinks
You see the intention before you pick up the lists. A line-up of fallen-soldier bottles double-parked in the front window signals the seriousness. The lists themselves, shaped by general manager, James Shaw – alumnus of The Hand & Flowers, The Coach, Vagabond, The Pem, Kerridge’s Bar & Grill, and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, where he worked 90-hour weeks as assistant sommelier – is precise. Schooled at arguably the most respected local, and armed with a degree in physics and chemistry from Heriot-Watt, Shaw now juggles wine duties solo, despite having a freshly minted child at home, and performs with calm authority. The lists begin modestly, with Doran Family Wines Arya Chenin Blanc, Paarl 2024 (£9/125ml) offered in a Jancis Robinson x Richard Brendon Precision stem, then Maison de Montille Rully 2020 (£22), a generous and exact an expression notable for its value in an era when Côtes de Beaune is priced to invoke vertigo. Then things climb confidently to Krug Grand Cuvée 172ème and Tignanello, both listed at £65 via the cellar list, which Shaw curates in allocations of six or twelve bottles, “built on the demand of the local community”. Château d’Yquem 1996 is £95 per 100ml. Sparkling by the glass includes Langham Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut 2017 from magnum (£19/125ml). Another magnum, for those playing the long game, is A. Bergère Oenotek 2008 (£475), described by a possibly well-oiled merchant as “empyreumatic”. Conversely, a half of Lafleur-Gazin 1999 is yours for £100. The top end is crowned by Château Margaux 1986 (£1,100), though there is ample interest around the £70-£85 mark, including No Fine Print Lodi Cabernet 2022 (£75) by American music veterans, Pat Corcoran and Tim Smith, and “Pierre Sugrue Chardonnay Sur Lie Solera” (£85) being is a genteel way of describing “Bonkers Zombie Robot Alien Monsters From The Future Ate My Brain (Sur Lie)”. Also benefiting from Shaw’s input, cocktails are thoughtful. A cohesive freezer martini made with Hampton Court’s Lord of Misrule gin comes deepened with an Amalfi lemon twist. A non-alcoholic take on an Old Fashioned, starring the zootropically activated “functional” rum Smiling Wolf, is remarkably compelling. And while the peas might be “French style”, tea is stubbornly British: they serve Yorkshire Tea with pride.Dishes
From his slim open kitchen, flanked by much-needed storage solutions, the Somerset-born, Nick Beardshaw exemplified the experience which Tom Kerridge once credited as “instrumental to the success of our businesses.” Lunch began with Shaw’s “emergency Martini” alongside a truffled crumpet, sealed under a mantle of fluffy 36-month-aged Parmesan, and a satisfying steak tartare hash brown piped with Époisses. A Moon Shaped Pool, which earned its place here after being served at the Great British Menu banquet, followed. A hand-dived Orkney scallop in a vivid Thai green velouté, marinated cucumber, and beads of caviar. Inspired by Stanley Donwood’s cover for Radiohead’s 2016 album – a blurred, monochrome landscape evoking memory, erosion, and retreat – the dish arrived with a film which dissolved as the velouté was poured. Beardshaw won the fish course with it during a season which marked 65 years of British animation and illustration, uniting Paddington Bear and post-rock melancholia. A doublet of Rieslings accompanied: the vibrant, direct, electric, Killikanoon Mort’s Block Watervale 2022, and, via Coravin, the gently evolving, mighty Müller Egon Muller Sharzhof 2009 from a site first planted by the Romans.
A sirloin ensued, on the bone, having been aged for 30 days in Himalayan salt, and sourced from HG Walter, the West London butcher known for its relationships with small British farms, focus on native breeds, ethical husbandry, and precise dry-ageing. No one asked how we wanted it, which was fine by us, and it arrived properly rare, with a deep crust and a mineral, almost marine, tender centre. A snowy salad accompanied. To drink: Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona “385” Rosso Toscana 2018 – a composed blend led by Sangiovese, with Merlot, Ciliegiolo, and Syrah adding softness, lift, and a brush of spice. Rooted in Tuscan tradition but trimmed with modern edges, it was also the wine Shaw served at his wedding. (He’ll mark his anniversary at Dorian).
Dessert came in two parts. First, Balloon Girl - Beardshaw’s other Great British Menu creation - named after Banksy’s once-iconic mural, now better remembered for its self-destruction. Here, the reference was intact while the execution was poised: a raspberry and rose cheesecake, a chocolate raspberry torte, and a blackcurrant pâte de fruit. Then an Amalfi lemon tart with raspberry coulis and Isigny crème fraîche, was measured and bright; there was nothing to decode. Two pours accompanied: Sandeman 20-Year-Old Tawny, drawn from a strikingly large bottle, which evoked heavily roasted nuts and various dried fruits, and the far better-made wine from a warm year – Château Liot 2003, which brought honeyed lift and structure. At £15 per 100ml, it was priced as if ordered two decades ago.
Last sip
A portrait of Daphne du Maurier by Kate Boxer (mother to Jackson and Frank Boxer) watched over the room like a conspirator throughout our meal - the sort who knows precisely how many glasses of Krug have been measured and which tables deserve another. She seemed amused. Starling doesn’t need to be discovered - on a Saturday lunchtime, it was already full to the rafters, while across the green the local fair staged a Quran Exhibition beside multiple bouncy castles, face painting, acupuncture, and a Thermomix stand. Inside, the tables were tight, the service smooth, and the cellar visibly swelling. Not only is the restaurant brimming with customers – it’s brimming to the gunwales with wine. One wonders if Beardshaw might eventually annexe No. 5 next door, which appears available for rental. If so, there’d be room not just for more covers and bottles, but for the starlings – those eager, returning diners, known by name and hugged by the colourful receptionist – to flock and settle with a little more space between their wings. And yet, amid such assurance and genuine warmth, one is left to ask: does a restaurant this well-made really need the gimmickry of edible film and self-destructing references? Would A Moon Shaped Pool, and Balloon Girl still earn their place if served with simpler means? Is Beardshaw’s real talent best revealed unbothered by metaphor?Best for
- English wines
- Beef
- Set lunch
