The Twelve Hotel in Galway has recently picked up their third award in a row from Wine Spectator’s annual restaurant awards.

The press release reads

West Restaurant at The Twelve Hotel in Bearna has won Ireland’s only 2010 Award of Excellence, designed to recognise restaurants whose wine lists offer interesting selections, are appropriate to their cuisine and appeal to a wide range of wine lovers, from one of the world’s foremost and best-respected authorities on wine, Wine Spectator magazine.

Detractors may ask if they are “Ireland’s only winner”, then who else entered? . So, L’Ecrivan, Thornton’s or Guibauld’s may not have entered (let alone other Irish restaurants with fantastic wine lists). Valid question and one I emailed to Wine Spectator, but I’ve yet to receive a response.

Perhaps the awards are more like an independent audit i.e. validation that you’re doing the right things with your wine list. When you win, you can deservedly leverage all this hard work as marketing material.

In either case, the wine list looks very impressive. Cheers to the West restaurant in Bearna’s Twelve Hotel.

The food

First off, the food is fab and the service is friendly and efficient. The restaurant seemed busy when I was there last week but there wasn’t a hint of ruffled feathers. Indeed, the family and I got great attention.

Mains start at around €10 are mostly typical aromatic and refreshing Thai dishes, from noodles to curry. And now, onto the wine list.

The wines? Divine. By the glass. Class

I got talking to one of the owners, Conor Kilkenny. He admitted they put a great deal of effort into putting their wine list together. And it shows. There’s also the conventional wisdom that Asian food is difficult to pair wine with. Not so here. The choice is boundless.

By the glass

There’s a fantastic array of wines by the glass start from €4.95. I had the Birgit Eichinger, Hasel 2006 Gruner Veltliner, a refreshing and zippy little number that went suberbly with my Phad Thai.

The whites

Scanning the wine list, I noticed New Zealand Silvaner! Silvaner is a lesser-known Germanic grape so I was really impressed it on the list.

Other notable mentions are Trimbach’s Pinot Blanc from Alsace ’06 for €7, Tourangelle 2007 Sauvignon Blanc from Touraine for €6.50

The reds

Old Coach Road ’06 Pinot Noir from Nelson, NZ goes for €8.50, a Rioja – La Vendimia ’07 Palacios Remondo for €7.50 – both great choices.

Wider choice

While the above are just some of the By the Glass offerings, if you ask nicely enough, you’ll get any of the wines by the glass – they have an enomatic system to keep open bottles fresh.

How the wine list is categorised

The wines are organised by colour, then by grape. However, there’s no tasting note. Unless a diner knows their grapes, they’ll probably stick with the safe option. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this but I think there’s still room for improvement.

Some wine lists opt for wine style. Light and fruity, medium bodied, rich and intense for example. Others sort by country.

What I haven’t seen many restaurants do is link up their food and wine lists. Here’s what I mean, using Koh as an example:

Wine can deliver a decent bit of profit for restaurants so why not use a bit of creativity to promote a glass of wine?

It’s a nice touch for your customers and could deliver a little extra to the till.

All in all, a terrific wine list in Koh.