So, today. Lunch at Rochelle Canteen in Shoreditch. My first time. This is a remarkable restaurant housed in an old bike shed, and it’s only open weekday breakfast and lunchtimes. And it has no licence, so it’s BYO. But the food is amazing. Serious, and delicious.

Tucked away in a courtyard – part of an old school –  there’s no sign telling you that you are actually here, in the right place. You press a buzzer on the gate and wander through, across the lawn, and there it is. Established a few years ago by Margot Henderson, wife of Fergus (of St John fame), this is an insiders’ sort of place. I had smoked eel with bacon and mash, and it was simple, perfectly cooked and utterly delicious. The potato & radicchio bake, and drumhead cabbage sides were also  brilliant, and the quince crumble and jersey cream was worth getting fat for.

I brought two wines: corkage is just £5. The Norman Hardie Niagara Chardonnay 2013 was as delicious as I was expecting it to be, and then a rare bottle from Luis Pato. Far too young, but delicious anyway.

Luis Pato Pe Franco Valadas Vineyard 2011 Bairrada, Portugal
This is from a 0.4 hectare vineyard on chalky soils with ungrafted vines planted 8 years before this wine was made. Pato also has another ungrafted vineyard planted on sandy soils. This is a super-rare bottling, with only 23 magnums and 20 bottles made. Mine was number 16. Really, this was broached about a decade early, but how was I to know? It’s dense, rich and vivid but also has a nervous freshness to it, with a bright chalky quality to it, showing blackberries and cherries steeped in alcohol, with firm tannins masked by the fruit and good acidity. There’s maybe a touch of oak here, but it’s not troubling. Structured and youthful with real potential. 95/100