On the outside, Tillerman is a waterfront seafood restaurant. Under the hood it hides one of the best wine lists in the city and some seriously top-class seafood-leaning eats.
Buckle up. You’re going to need a few minutes with this wine list, which is an absolute behemoth, stretching for a muscle-straining 50 pages if we’re counting the coffee listing at the end. The cocktails have a low-key maritime tilt, with popular choices including the Mariner Martini (made with Never Never Oyster Shell Gin) and the siren-seductive Sailor’s Delight (a mix of Ketel One Botanical Peach and Orange Blossom Vodka, maraschino liqueur, peppermint syrup, grape juice and lemon). There’s also a whole page devoted to G&Ts with recommended Fever-Tree and Long Rays tonic pairings for a range of gins including Four Pillars Olive Leaf and St Laurent from Canada.
But it’s head sommelier Stephen Hazlett’s wine list that will really get your brow fevered. A gargantuan by-the-glass list includes pours from everyone from François Crochet in the Loire Valley to New Zealand’s Amisfield. By the bottle there are four pages of Champagne and sparkling, and then whites grouped from palomino (a grape typically used for sherry) through to full-bodied and complex chardonnays and viogniers. Reds also run the spectrum from high-spirited Beaujolais to boss-energy Henschke shiraz.
Alcohol avoidants aren’t overlooked. The zero-proof cocktail list is as considered as everything else – the fresh-faced Aspen Spritz is made with Lyre’s Apéritif Rosso and lemon aspen and fennel syrup, and the Rum & Raisin Colada gets its “rum” from essence rather than the hard stuff.
