Royal St Andrews Hotel bags fifth Diners Club award

Royal St Andrews Hotel has received its fifth Diners Club Winelist award, a diamond international award for 2022.

VINTAGE COLLECTION: Royal St Andrews Hotel has won the 2022 Diners Club International Wine List diamond award. The hotel’s food and beverage manager, Robin Hyde holds up one of their vintage wines, a 2013 Meerlust Cabernet Sauvignon. Picture: FAITH QINGA

The hotel is no newcomer to bagging this prestigious international wine award: they won platinum in 2016 and 2017 and diamond in 2018 and 2019. 

Royal St Andrews is the only hotel in the Eastern Cape that received the diamond rating and announcing the award, the hotel said they were proud to represent Port Alfred, the Sunshine Coast and Eastern Cape at large on an international stage. 

The prestigious accolade is also an elusive one and the hotel said it was a tribute to the fine art of a well-structured wine list that perfectly suits their fine dining Thistle Restaurant menu. 

It can be put down to the excellent wine knowledge and consistent hard work of the hotel’s Food and Beverage Manager, Robin Hyde. 

“Port Alfred has a restaurant that has a world class wine list, which allows people to have a superior food and wine experience,” he said. 

The South African Diners Club Winelist Awards confirm that an establishment has a fine and well thought-out wine list that compliments the menu. 

“When you come and eat at The Thistle, we have a wine list which is curated to the highest standards so it means you’ll have amazing wines to go with the food. It shows that we have taken the time to stock wines that will suit everyone,” he said.

The criteria that led to the establishment receiving the diamond rating included:

  • It displays the individual wines’ vintages throughout (no “split” vintages); 
  • It contains an adequate number of wines per category for the type of establishment;
  • The list contains excellent wines in all/most categories and at varied price points;
  • The list clearly contains exciting new wines along with classic labels;
  • Also: It contains a reserve/select list of aged wines;
  • Also: The list contains numerous and interesting wines by the glass, representing many of the wine categories and from multiple producers;
  • It offers either very good, personalised and/or informative wine descriptions for the wines or restaurant has an accredited and verified sommelier team;
  • The list (or the wine stewards/sommeliers) is able to offer personalised food and wine pairings;
  • The list is free of notable errors in information;
  • The list explains which regions the wine comes from (wine of origin).
  • The list has contents and/or an index to aid navigation; or navigation is made easy for the diner.

Royal St Andrews Hotel offers food and wine pairing on Thursdays and the wines selected for the pairings come from their award-winning wine list. 

“Every Thursday, we do the food and wine pairings and all those wines we use there come off our wine list. And when you come here, each dish on our a la carte menu has a wine that we recommend that you can enjoy it with,” said Hyde. 

Hyde said that every year the hotel had entered their wine list, they always won awards. 

“It’s nice to know that we’re still current and up to date because obviously as with food, wine trends change; there’s new wineries, new wines, different vintages so it shows that we’re keeping up with the rest of the world,” he said. 

To book a table at the Thistle restaurant call 046 604 5400 or contact reservations@rsah.co.za