"Wine Bars should be fun places for relaxing, eating and drinking ... And some wine education if so desired. Often they are exactly the opposite. I established the Cork & Bottle in the heart of Theatreland, in the most unlikely of sites - next door to a fish & chip restaurant and underneath a sex shop!

Over 36 years I have presided over a number of other West End establishments - SHAMPERS (now owned and run by my good friend Simon Pearson), BUBBLES, METHUSELAHS and THE HANOVER SQUARE WINE BAR & GRILL. Now that I am semi-retired and writing a few new books, I am still looking after my "first born" with as much enthusiasm and attention to detail as ever.

My beliefs are simply - in a world full of so much great food and wine, why settle for a slab of quiche and a glass of boring plonk? Our food is innovative, fresh and tasty. It’s available when you want to eat. Lunch at midday? Fine. A tasty salad or one of our famous Open Grilled Sirloin Sandwiches and a decent bottle of red at 4.30pm? No problem. A snack and a glass or two after the theatre ... That’s our speciality!

The wine list speaks for itself ... " Legendary for its iconoclastic notes. It doesn’t necessarily tell you what the wines taste like - you have to make your own mind up. It’s there to provoke interest. " Says Harpers, the wine trade magazine. As South Oz wine making supremo John Glaetzer puts it so succinctly, "this is not a wine list ... It’s a book". And a readable one at that."