Grape Escape

I expected the Dallas theme tune to start up as soon as we entered the Summertown Wine Cafe one busy Friday night.

Because it was as if the 90s and noughties never happened. Liam and Noel who? Girlpower? Absolutely what?

In fact the only difference that I could see was that mobiles were smaller and prices steeper than in the 80s, but otherwise it was as if the wicked fairy had cast her evil spell on this North Oxford favourite and sent everyone to sleep for the past 20 years.

Stuffed to the gills with Dragon School yummy mummies in tight white jeans, highlighted hair and even, shock, horror, collars turned up, surrounded by a back drop of appreciative men in suits, the braying Sloane is alive and kicking in North Oxford.

The Summertown Wine Cafe was more like something out of a Jilly Cooper novel than the gentle French cafe that it is.

Either way, whether its reflective of the local population or just that wine cafes have never gone out of fashion, it’s here to stay, and heaving by the way. In fact it was so busy we had to stand outside, after battling our way through the designer handbags to the bar, and sip our rosé on the pavement until a table became available.

That much I remember, but just as the proof is in the pudding, so the clue is in the title. Wine Cafe. It was never going to be a sober experience.

But they serve platters you see, which I thought fitted the pretence of food. And thank God they did because we needed something to soak up the alcohol.

I do remember some very coarse salami, delicious ham and some wonderful cheese and bread, but that’s about it I’m afraid.

But then if you ask the owners about their food, they would agree that their eyes are firmly trained on the vineyards rather than the kitchen. They do, though, provide just enough fodder to stop their customers going home for supper.

As for the wine, it was fabulous. Just don’t expect me to remember what it was. It was recommended by the owner Valere De Weck and his recommendation was good enough for me.

And anyway, wine-wise I don’t pretend to be an aficionado. I know what I like and when I find a wine that suits my palate I drink gallons of the stuff.

But give me a wine menu and I’d much rather leave it up to the experts. You don’t want a decent sommelier to waste all that education!

What I do know is that the Wine Cafe’s reputation is excellent, that it’s ridiculously reasonably priced and that the wines they choose are applauded county-wide and beyond.

The Liz Hurley brigade are onto something here, and if you venture in at lunchtime, or on a lazy afternoon, when it’s not as crowded as a sunny weekend evening, when the world and his highlighted wife are in town, you can more fully appreciate the scope, depth, knowledge, expertise and passion that goes into keeping the Summertown Wine cafe on the map. And all without a bottle of Bolly in sight.

* The cold cheese/cold meat platters at the Summertown Wine Cafe range from £5- £9. Happy Hour runs every day from 12-7pm when house wine is £3.50 a glass and champagne £5.50 a glass. The Summertown Wine Cafe is at 38 South Parade, Summertown.

01865 558800.