Valentines Menu 2012
£49.50 per person

A glass of NV Henriot champagne

A choice of:

Beetroot and goats cheese crotin salad
Oysters
Smoked salmon

Purple sprouting broccoli, lentils
Crab and lobster ravioli
Steak tartare

Wild mushrooms, polenta, spinach
Bourride
Guinea fowl, wild mushrooms

Chocolate tart

Coffee and petit fours

For full terms and conditions or to download a booking form, click Valentines 2012

Please note this is a sample menu only, dishes may change.  Please let us know of any dietary requirements; All prices are inclusive of VAT but a discretionary service charge of 12.5% will be added to the bill.

The Glassboat proudly celebrated 25 years of trading late in 2011, come and join in our celebrations and we will give you a voucher for £25 off your next visit.

Terms and conditions: Receive £25 off your final bill for each £100 spent at Glassboat, voucher cannot be redeemed if bill is less than £100.

Valid for use in bar, lower deck, main restaurant from 09.01.12 until 30.04.12 only, excludes Valentines 14th February 2012 and Mothering Sunday 18th March 2012.

Muscadet was the original House wine of the Glassboat restaurant back in the 80s and we used to sell gallons of the stuff.  The restaurant, one of the first on the harbour side, opened when lunches were still de rigueur to the substantial Bristol financial services industry with luncheons often interrupted by financiers shouting into their brick-size mobile phones.

Made from Melon de Bourgogne, near Nantes in the far west of the Loire, the majority of Muscadet is quaffed young and fresh, a perfect accompaniment to a plate of seafood.  As the Melon de Bourgogne is a relatively neutral grape many producers seek to add complexity by producing Muscadet sur lie.

Here the wine remains in contact with the residues of fermentation for a number of months prior to bottling, a process which gives the wine a fuller flavour; a creamier, softer texture and can trap a little residual carbon dioxide resulting in a slight sparkle.

For too long the vast majority of Muscadet has been sold on quantity via négociants concerned mainly with price and a view to consumption as young as possible, which inevitably results in the image of the wine suffering.  Independent vignerons are however working hard to improve the reputation of the area and it is undoubtedly the case that Muscadet when carefully vinified from older vines in established vineyards is very capable of aging gracefully due to its high acidity and minerality.

The current emphasis in the area is on a further delimitation of the better vineyards and to further extend the period of lees-aging which paradoxically can result in the wine not being allowed to list ‘sur-lie´on its bottle due to the complexities of French wine laws.

Perhaps Muscadet never really went out of fashion, but as wines from more revered regions continue to rise in price, reputable producers from this area of the Loire offer a more realistic opportunity for tasting the development of a wine in bottle over a number of years or even decades.

Muscadets from 3 different decades are currently available on the list at the Glassboat.

In honour of our original house wine,  we are offering a complimentary glass of Muscadet per person for all lower deck bookings in 2012 until the end of February.

Muscadet was our original house wine and many of our diners were kept afloat on this Loire classic in our early days. Most often made to be drunk young and fresh, good Muscadet can also age gracefully; it’s acidity and high minerality allowing it to develop a degree of complexity without losing its inherent freshness.

In honour of the original listing we will be showcasing Muscadet from three
different decades, featuring wines from Choblet and Luneau-Papin.

1986 a fine year indeed, not least as Glassboat was launched.

To celebrate, a compact list of fine wines from this vintage is now available;
Hermitage, E Guigal; Domaine de Chevalier and Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou all feature