Café Graves Wine Bar

Almost as soon as it opened, Café Graves received top marks from food and wine critics alike. It is one of my favourite wine bars in Amsterdam, so I am always surprised that it is so quiet. Perhaps this review will help...

Café Graves is on Gravenstraat behind Dam Square. The narrow street gives the wine bar its name, as well as referencing a wine-producing sub-region within Bordeaux. This is appropriate as Café Graves sells exclusively French wines - and lots of them.

At least 50 wines are available by the bottle and glass, the latter offering plenty of opportunities to compile your own tour de France, based on wine preferences and budget. The cheapest wine on offer is a 2005 Muscadet (€5), and prices extend to a head-spinning €18 for a glass of dense, velvety 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin. Quality matches the prices, however, and the knowledgeable bar staff pours generously.

The wine list includes plenty of familiar grape varieties (Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir), but is defined by its selection from smaller producers. Marc Kreydenweiss, for example, a biodynamic producer in the Alsace, makes a Kritt Pinot Blanc full of ripe white fruit; and Isabelle and Denis Pommier produce a complex, creamy Chablis Premier Cru ‘Beauroy’.

Café Graves is opposite a coffeeshop (yes, the Amsterdam kind) frequented by rowdy young 'blowers', which makes sitting at one of the tables outside feel like a trip back to secondary school. Inside, however, is unexpectedly spacious and serene.

The wine bar's only windows are the few in the narrow facade facing the coffeeshop, but the building extends back some 20 metres. It was formerly a newspaper printer, and the high ceiling and view up to the second floor through a large opening where the printing press used to be prevents it from feeling oppressive.

At the back, a small kitchen turns out a limited but elegant selection of light Dutch-Mediterranean meals - coquille in pancetta with saffron risotto; rack of lamb with Puy lentils and roasted aubergine puree; white chocolate panna cotta and peach-lavender ice cream - designed to complement the wines rather than the other way around.

It's easy to spend a whole evening in Café Graves, flitting between wine regions and grape varieties like a tipsy butterfly. It's also easy to spend more than you had planned. With so many good wines to choose from, though, the real downer won't be the financial damage but the hangover next morning.