RESTAURANT BENEDICTS – GUTTER & STARSWINE DINNER – FRIDAY 8th JULY.
We are pleased to announce our next wine dinner, bringing together one of the UK’s newest and exciting urban wineries and one of the UK’s top chefs. Somewhere in the middle is Fredricks, and we invite you to join us for a memorably evening.It’s an honour to have Chris host his first wine dinner with us in Norwich and a rare opportunity to try his new releases before they sell out.

The Good Mixer 2021

Bacchus 2021

Orange Bacchus 2021

Chardonnay 2020 (library stock)

Pinot Noir 2020 (library stock)

We have booked the private dining room at Benedicts and invite twelve guests to join us. Tickets are £90 per person and include a 5 course tasting menu accompanied by Chris’ wines. 

Chris Wilson is a journalist-turned-winemaker. He was – and still is – a wine journalist, but turned to winemaking, completing a few vintages around the world and taking a BSc in viticulture and enology at Plumpton (Sussex, UK), before starting an urban micro-negociant winery in Cambridge.
Back in 2020, Chris helped us with our own local wine project from Juliette’s vines in Burston and has consulted with us on our current release of the 2021 Seyval Blanc.
Chris is a great host and will pour his current releases alongside some of his personal library stock, as he started out in music journalism, and the wines are all named with a musical reference. The label art comes mainly from artist friends, and he’s also designed a few himself.

Restaurant Benedicts needs little introduction, Richard Bainbridge opened Benedicts with his wife Katja in June 2015, He has travelled and worked his way through some of the most amazing Restaurants and countries across the globe. He has worked for Michel Roux Senior at the 3 Michelin Starred Waterside Inn, for Günter Seeger (NY), Kevin Thornton (Dublin) and upon his return to Norfolk he was head chef at Galton Blackiston’s Morston Hall.
Benedicts has been named in The Times Top 100 Restaurants in the UK, Square Meal Top 100 and EDP Norfolk’s Best Restaurant, alongside a rating of 6 in the Good Food Guide. Benedicts was awarded 3 AA Rosettes in January 2018.
In 2015 Richard won BBC 2’s Great British Menu  and returned in 2017 as a Veteran Judge on the program judging the chefs of the central region.

This summer we will launch our monthly wine school, so why not take advantage of this taster session.

The Master Class will run for about half an hour from the downstair room. Space is limited to approximately 12 guests.

You must also purchase a general admission ticket for this tasting.

Stock up for summer – Our spring into summer portfolio tasting of new releases.
Friday 24th June from 6pm, Diss

ITALY . LANGUEDOC . ROUSSILLON . SOUTHERN RHÔNE . 

PROVENCE . ARDÈCHE . BUGEY . BEAUJOLAIS . LOIRE . PORTUGAL . 

World Record Shop Day, experience wine with Fredricks, vinyl by Wildflower Records

Knowing about Chateau Musar takes more than a sip or a glassful, however fascinating the taste of that wine might prove to be. To know Chateau Musar takes an understanding of terroir, of natural winemaking, of human nature and of history. 

The story of Musar’s survival during the Lebanese civil war of 1975 to 1990 is well documented. It was a formative time for the wine and for its creator, Serge Hochar, who was only just beginning to trust his grapes (as he famously said) to ‘become what they wanted to be’. From 1975, he had no choice. They were harvested when the shelling paused; their transit to the winery took as long as avoiding militia check-points permitted (sometimes days), and winemaking could only happen when the coast road was clear and Serge could reach the winery.

And yet the war is only a tiny part of the history that makes Musar wines what they are. Lebanese heritage, charted right 4,000 years ago to Phoenician times, has had a dramatic influence on the way the vine is grown in Lebanon. The Phoenicians were the first to cultivate the vine professionally and to trade wine internationally; they then taught the Greeks their oenological skills, and earned the admiration of the Romans for their links to market.

Due to the limited stock of the back vintages we are initially releasing just 30 tickets, after that we will release open a reserve list for another 15 guests.

For a chance to taste this legacy with Jane Sowter, MD Chateau Musar book now Tickets are £20 per person.