By The Inspector
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Rating: 
Gone are the days when you could ring up a Hotel du Vin and book a room of your choice, with a touch of wheeler-dealer negotiations thrown in.
Nowadays, you’re shunted off to ‘central booking’ where a perfectly polite, but predictably unenthusiastic, person staring at a computer screen reels off the rates you’ve already read online.
Ask for information about any particular room and she tells you there’s a double bed, TV and bathroom with a separate shower or ‘shower over the bath’. Many thanks.
Efficient: The fixtures and fittings are built to last at the Hotel du Vin, The Inspector finds
Hotel du Vin (founded 1994) has become the corporate, non-corporate option â€" the price you pay when there are 14 hotels on the books.
But, but, but...what you can’t fault is the way this inventive chain takes over special buildings and turns them into welcoming, sure-footed small hotels, offering fresh, imaginative nosh, with wine lists so extensive you’re bound to bow your head in admiration.
The (leather-bound) list in York is 38 pages long and includes a 1990 Chateau Haut Brion at £1,100 a bottle, just upstaging a 1995 Margaux for £950 â€" that’s around £150 a glass.
Sitting at the bar with a margarita, I’m studying the list with such int ent that the sommelier (French, female, feisty) asks if I want to try a few before making my selection.
Quirky: The hotel, which used to be an orphanage, pays great attention to detail
Yes, please. I opt eventually for a Californian Pinot Noir, which she says is a ‘little treasure’.
Everything in a Hotel du Vin works. The fixtures and fittings are built to last, especially the Aston Matthews showers, which have an industrial feel to them.
The TV remote is simple to work out, there are proper sash windows that open as wide as you like, free wi-fi for all, a fully-stocked mini-bar, espresso machine, Egyptian linen and plenty of Miller Harris potions and lotions.
Even the chunky, black, wooden loo seats exude confidence. Hotel du Vins are like sportsmen (David Gower, Roger Federer, Lionel Messi) who make it all look so easy. The York on e â€" a handsome Georgian building within easy walking distance of the historic city centre â€" used to be an orphanage.
It has a magnificent staircase in the main house, plus plenty of nooks and crannies, darkened corners, even a cigar room. The Bistro has trademark nicotine-coloured walls. Each table has a candle.
Service is swift and efficient. I have a splendid beetroot and goat’s cheese salad, followed by duck that’s been slow-cooked in such a way that the meat falls off the bone as smoothly as a Tom Daley double-tuck with twist.
Hotel du Vin’s founders have long ridden off into the economic sunset. But they must be chuffed that their original concept remains resolutely intact. You don’t get hospitality like this â€" at these prices â€" in France.
Travel Facts
Hotel du Vin Bistro
89 The Mount
York
YO24 1AX
01904 557350
www.hotelduvin.com
Doubles from £170
Rating:
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