<a target="_blank" href="http://www.thewoodsmanrestaurant.com/">The
Woodsman</a>

4 Chapel
St

Stratford-upon-Avon


CV37 6HA

BY NEAL MARTIN |&nbsp;APRIL 14, 2023The Food:

Winter salad of Jerusalem artichokes,
pumpernickel &amp; roasted lemon, preserved wild mushrooms with hazelnut
vinaigrette

Beetroot &amp; Elderwood cured chalk stream
trout with pickled golden beetroot, blood orange and sesame mayonnaise

Bathurst Estate roast venison to share with
roasted broccoli, dirty mash and wood-fired root vegetables

Glazed dark chocolate mousse with hazelnut
praline, poached pear and pear sorbet

Blood orange tartlet, white chocolate and
tarragon, olive oil cake with blood orange sorbet

The Wines:

<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>2019
 Domaine Hubert Lamy Puligny-Montrachet Les Tremblots&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
 <td>93</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>2014 Pichon Baron</td>
 <td>94</td>
 </tr></tbody></table> 

If food be the music of love, eat on –
Thirteenth Night (sequel to Twelfth)

Shakespeare spun some great yarns. The man
could tell a story. But this spotty-faced schoolboy’s memories are comprised of
endless hours staring gormlessly at a page completely befuddled. What the hell is
he blathering on about? I should have been reciting sonnets like some foppish
dandy out of the Evelyn Waugh novel. Instead, I clutched my dog-eared copy of
Macbeth in the futile act of unraveling the wordy nonsensical prose and abhorring
the haphazard punctuation. Like J.R.R. Tolkien, who could write an
intelligible sentence, I “disliked cordially” this supposed founder of the
English language.

Come to my O-Levels exams aged sixteen. The
Bard stood in the dock accused of forcing me to quit English literature. The
jury found that he could stuff his adroit alliterations, soliloquies and iambic
pentameter that left readers more stressed than (every other) syllable down his
breeches. Henceforth, I would study subjects more useful in becoming a captain
of industry by studying maths and economics. There’s nothing metaphorical in a
quadratic equation or Keynesian macroeconomic theory. Alas, I was so overcome
with ennui that I yearned for an occasional rhyming couplet. How ironic that my
vocation involves threading words into sentences, some even remarking that they
enjoy it, the fools.

Thirty-six years after quitting Shakespeare,
it was time to make my peace with a pilgrimage to his birthplace,
Stratford-upon-Avon. Perchance our rapprochement would inspire me? Naturally, once
I had visited his original home and begged forgiveness at the foot of his
statue, I could eat a horse. Thankfully, I had booked a restaurant nearby that epitomizes
everything I love about eating out.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1681479750916-woodsman+facade.jpg">The Woodsman&nbsp;façade Even before broaching the menu, there are
many aspects of The Woodsman that I admire. It nestles in a splendid 16th-century
townhouse converted into a hotel, surfeit with antiquated charm, warped oak
beams and flagstone paving greeting you at the entrance. The restaurant, part
of the Hotel Indigo, was refurbished but maintains a comforting timeworn
aesthetic, manifesting a very cozy ambiance, a background hubbub wafting in
from an adjoining bar. There is a nice buzz about the place. Our table was in
the direct line of a pizza oven, and fearing that by the main course I would be
seared on one side of my face, I asked to move, which the waitress accommodated
immediately.

Head chef Mike Robertson is known for his
impeccable sourcing of local ingredients and nose-to-tail eating philosophy. I came
close to choosing a nearby Michelin-starred restaurant. But I am more swayed by
the meticulous detail of sourcing information gleaned from The Woodsman’s website,
which is always a good sign. Our three-course dinner might have been simple,
yet it was one of the most delicious I have eaten in a long time, every dish
bursting with flavor and consistently well-cooked.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1681479811842-woodsman+artichocke.jpg">Winter salad of Jerusalem artichokes, pumpernickel &amp; roasted lemon, preserved wild mushrooms with hazelnut vinaigrette 

We started with a winter salad of Jerusalem
artichokes, pumpernickel &amp; roasted lemon, preserved wild mushrooms with
hazelnut vinaigrette. This was brilliant. There’s been a recent thread on the <a target="_blank" href="https://forum.vinous.com/discussion/14522/vegetarian-food-and-wine-pairings">Your
Say forum</a> in appreciation of vegetarian dishes, and this starter completely
exemplified the joys of meat/fish-free fare. The ingredients worked in absolute
harmony with each other: the sharpness of the artichoke and lemon, the
sweetness of the pumpernickel and the acidity of the vinaigrette. I came close
to re-ordering it. We also chose the beetroot &amp; Elderwood cured chalk
stream trout with pickled golden beetroot, blood orange and sesame mayonnaise.
This was almost as good as the winter salad, the golden beetroot and trout, an
inspired combination.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1681479848826-woodsman+venison.jpg">Bathurst Estate roast venison to share with roasted broccoli, dirty mash and wood-fired root vegetables 

For the main, we shared the joint of seasoned
roast venison that Robinson butchers for the restaurant. Cooked to absolute
perfection and bursting with flavor, this was partnered with roasted broccoli
and pots of dirty mash (with shredded venison, sourdough crumb and deer gravy) and
woodfired root vegetables. Straightforward but devastatingly effective, you
would not want to be eating anything else at that precise moment. <img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1681479886606-woodsman+chocolate.JPG">Glazed dark chocolate mousse with hazelnut praline, poached pear and pear sorbet Moving on to desserts (after a ten minute
pause to digest and reminisce about the venison), a plate of glazed dark
chocolate mousse with hazelnut praline, poached pear and pear sorbet exited the
kitchen with “Happy Birthday” scrawled in chocolate.

Took about three minutes to demolish that.

Who said that things sweet to taste prove in
digestion sour? Not in this case.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1681479920740-woodsman+blood+orange.JPG">Blood orange tartlet, white chocolate and tarragon, olive oil cake with blood orange sorbet Perhaps the killer dessert was a sublime
blood orange tartlet, white chocolate and tarragon, olive oil cake with blood
orange sorbet. The tarragon worked perfectly with the olive oil cake, a dessert
that was light on its feet, tangy and a bit like my artichoke starter, simply a
perfect combination of ingredients. 

With regard to the wines, The Woodsman has a
decent but not extensive list. I appreciate that they are completely open to
corkage with a very reasonable charge, prompting me to scarper to a local wine
shop where I found a bottle of 2019 Puligny-Montrachet Les Tremblots
Vieilles Vignes from Domaine Hubert Lamy priced about one-third of
its current market value. I was taken by this from barrel, so it was a chance
to revisit the wine in bottle. It showcases Olivier Lamy’s brilliance. Much
more tensile than you would expect from a warm vintage, this bursts from the
glass with freshly-sliced Conference pear, crushed limestone and oyster shell
scents. Say what you like about Burgundy, but no other region delivers
aromatics like this. The palate is brilliantly defined with poise and a sense
of electricity that keeps drawing you back for another sip. And this is not
even the Haut-Densité incarnation! The 2014 Pichon Baron followed. This
has moved little since my last note. Blackberry and briary scents are interlaced
with graphite. The bouquet opens nicely over a couple of hours, youthful but
not disconcertingly so. The palate is beautifully balanced with a sense of
coolness and class, an aristocratic Pauillac with crunchy tannins, pure black
fruit and that flintiness on the finish that feels focused and abundantly
fresh. No harm in opening bottles now, though I would afford it another couple
of years in the cellar.

I must confess, I became rather star-crossed
by The Woodsman. It delivers without pretension, the careful sourcing of ingredients
plain to see and obvious to taste in every mouthful. Our dinner was a fraction
of the price gourmands must fork out in the capital these days, and few
restaurants can conjure such quaint Tudor surroundings. ‘Tis the kind of
get-away-from-it place where diners can just relax, unwind and savor the
cuisine. I look forward to returning anon. Who knows, I might have actually
read Shakespeare by then? But I cannot promise to understand it. © 2023, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.

Content

Engage

Vinous

Social