Wine List

(Please click to see the Wine list.)

After Dinner Coffees and Liqueurs

We are constantly adding to our range of liqueurs. Please tell us if your favourite is not shown - we will be pleased to offer it for your next visit!

Penderyn Single Malt Welsh Whisky, aged in Madeira casks and finished in oak bourbon casks - 46% ABV
35ml £3.00
Merlyn Welsh Whisky Cream liqueur - 17% ABV
50ml £2.00
Courvoisier Napoleon Brandy - 40% ABV
35ml £2.25
Jack Daniels Tennessee Sourmash Whisky - 40% ABV
35ml £2.10
Jim Beam Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky - 40% ABV
35ml £2.10
Jameson's triple distilled Irish Whiskey - 40% ABV
35ml £2.00
Bell's Scotch Whisky - 40% ABV
35ml £2.00
Southern Comfort New Orleans Whisky - 35%
ABV 35ml £2.00
Drambuie Scotch Whisky & Honey liqueur - 40% ABV
35ml £2.00
Sambuca - Casoni Elderflower and Anise liqueur - 40% ABV
35ml £2.00
Fresh ground Fair Trade coffee - Medium roast, Strong Espresso and decaffeinated
Per cup £1.50

Cask Conditioned Ales

The Bell's Cask Conditioned Ales board has a reputation for its quality and variety. Recent offerings include: Bateman's XXXB, Greene King, Abbot Ale, Caledonian 80/-, Caledonian Deuchars IPA, Ringwood Forty Niner, Ringwood Best, Gales HSB, Morland Old Speckled Hen,
Hopback Summer Lightning, Young's Special Bitter, Shepherd Neame Spitfire, Everard's Tiger, Gales HSB, Adnam's Best Bitter, Hook Norton Old Hooky and Timothy Taylor Landlord.

Recent Microbrewery Beers:

At the Bell we believe variety to be "the spice of life" and offer an ever-changing range of excellent real ales from SIBA member Microbreweries in Wales and the South-West.
These have been on recently: Rhymney Brewery Centenary Ale, Bevans' Bitter and Best Bitter. Evan Evans' Best, Cwrw and Warrior SBA. Cwmbran Brewery Full Malty, Drayman's Choice and Four Seasons. Otley O1, OBB and OG. Breconshire Golden Valley, County and Red Dragon. Spinning Dog Mutley's Pitstop, Revenge plus Celtic Gold. Wye Valley Butty Bach, Bitter, Dorothy Goodbody Stout and Golden Ale. Freeminer's Best, Speculation and Back Street Heroes. Tomos Watkin OSB & Merlin's Stout. Bath Ales SPA and Barnstormer. Felinfoel Best, Celtic Pride and Double Dragon. Vale of Glamorgan No.1 and Special. Moor's Withy Cutter, Somerland Gold, Peat Porter and Merlin's Magic. Exe Valley Dobs Best and Devon Glory. RCH PG Steam, East Street Cream, Old Slug Porter and Pitchfork.

Cider

THE BELL'S FAMOUS CIDER AND PERRY MENU

Along the Marches, bordering England's great cider belt in the Three Counties (Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire) Wales once again has a thriving cider culture to rival that of its Celtic cousin, Brittany. The Bell can offer the best of these regions in an ever-changing list of about 20 …yes 20…bottled and gravity-dispensed draught products. They're all on our Cider & Perry board - drink them on their own as an accompaniment to food and remember…we're here to advise!

HOUSE DRAUGHT CIDERS AND PERRIES

GWYNT-Y-DDRAIG, LLANTWIT FARDRE

HAYMAKER (6,5% abv, medium). .Apple in the nose, but a suave, seductive, smooth, almost peachy palate, a long oaky finish with just enough tartness to be a good quencher on a hot day! Dangerously addictive...

BARNSTORMER (7,0%, dry). Full, tart, citric nose, with zesty bite on the tongue, but never rough. Dryly refreshing for a summer afternoon, like a Bavarian weissbier

DABINETT (6,5%, medium). Vanilla and strawberry, a big fat burst of flavours, but subtle dryness in the palate means this never cloys. A dessert cider to be savoured made from a single apple variety.

FIERY FOX (7,0%, medium). Mellow and autumnal, vaguely dark-toffee notes as it grows on the palate...warming, even?

MAJOR BROWN (7.0%. medium dry). Even more caramelised, dark-chocolatey and single malt traces in nose and palate - we haven't tried spicing or mulling yet, but why don't you?

PERRY (7,0% dry). A small explosion of citric vim when it's young - but give the pears a chance and they're there. Pale and inviting as a glass of Robinson's Barley Water - and better for you on a summer day!

WESTON'S, MUCH MARCLE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

OLD ROSIE (7.3% abv, medium dry). Popular updating of Herefordshire scrumpy from one of Britain's major indie cidermakers, a buccaneering and innovative firm proving time-honoured methods can produce a tasty, rounded, authentic traditional cider for a mass market - and then some! Sip it or quaff it - it's delicious.

...AND NOT FORGETTING...
...OUR ESTEEMED GUESTS...

The Bell's draught ciders and perries change regularly, often including produce from tiny farmhouse concerns unavailable anywhere else. Here are some recent highlights.

ROSS ON WYE - From the heartland of English cider, our Ross was an archetypal Three Counties medium-dry farmhouse cider that any drinker worth his salt from Worcester to Weston-super-Mare will identify as a winner.

REDDAWAY'S, CHUDLEIGH, DEVON - We've had it sweet and we've had it dry, and we've never had it bad. Devonian rocket fuel, with that characteristic West Country cider-apple bite!

SPRINGFIELD, LLANGOVAN - This small farmhouse producer carried off top honours at the Welsh Perry and Cider Society Festival in May 2006. Rustic, truly appley, refreshing and complex, it does the simple things perfectly.

SEIDR O SIR CANOL, HUNDRED HOUSE nr BUILTH WELLS - On the Welsh fringe of the Marches in deepest Powys, where the orchards merge into the Cambrian Mountains. Innovative and lovingly crafted ciders combining up-to-date knowledge of apple science and a devotion to traditional method. Their two-year-matured Vilberie (7.1% abv) with its phenolic nose is initially sour and tart, then with sharp tangerine and sherbet notes.

GWATKIN, ST MARGARETS - Big Dennis Gwatkin farms in the Golden Valley, where the red soils and dappled woodlands of Herefordshire meet the forbidding bulk of the Brecon Beacons. He specialises in earthy ciders and perries made from single varieties, Yarlington, Blakeney Red, Foxwhelp and others of equally delightful nomenclature. Dennis keeps it real!

YSBYTY MYNEDIAD, CHEPSTOW - The work of one of the prime movers of Wales' cider revival, Jon Hallam, 'Hospital Inpatient' cider's painstakingly crafted and matured on the site of Chepstow's old St Lawrence Hospital. An apple expert, Jon makes no concessions to soft palates - but his flavours are full, mature, complex and welcoming.

HECK'S, STREET, SOMERSET - West Country micro on the rise, hailed as a Food Superhero by Rick Stein, this is no-nonsense, dry and cloudy class in a glass.

TROGGI, EARLSWOOD nr CHEPSTOW - Cider-master Mike Penney's at the cutting edge of new Welsh cider, fiercely traditional yet not afraid to experiment. For the adventurous and sophisticated palate. Mike's last delivery, a special and experimental 'Glen Grant 1972' is a case in point, matured in casks used for the light, peaty, nutty, sherry-like single malt of Lower Speyside. Not quite Calvados, but getting there.

CJ'S CIDER, USK - We didn't get where we are today without knowing good cider - and this tiny local producer deserves to be much better known. Our sample was an 8% monster, approximately a medium, clear/amber despite an aggressive, almost briny nose. But it's no combine-harvester fuel; it's refined, spicy, herby, dry, one for when the frosts draw in on the last autumn apple harvest.

DAN-Y-GRAIG, GROSMONT - A newcomer, a little producer who should be set for big things. Their Medium (5.8% abv) is pear-drop and apricot frenzy, only a residual apple tang setting it apart from its beery cousin, the quenching dry Weissbiers of Bavaria.

SEIDR DAI, CARDIFF - David Matthews' one-man, boldly-going cider mission often conjures some Welsh magic. Dave walked off with "Best Perry" at 2006's CAMRA National Cider & Perry festival!

Other visitors have included WILKINS of SOMERSET and SUDD CWMPO DROSTO of Gwent... there will be many more. Bet on it.

BOTTLED CIDER AND PERRY

GWYNT-Y-DDRAIG, LLANTWIT FARDRE

BLACK DRAGON 6.0% abv, medium. Originally a draught cider whose complex character is brought out by bottle-conditioning. Picture an orchard on a nippy September morning when the first apples are overripe in the grass - all this, but in a bottle. Great now, a future classic.

GOLD MEDAL 6.5% medium dry. Bill & Andy's Gold Medal winning medium-dry cider.

ORCHARD GOLD 4.9% medium-sweet. Surprisingly complex for a sweetie, with Parma violets, but the lingering finish gives it distinction.

WESTON'S, MUCH MARCLE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

ORGANIC CIDER 6,0% abv, medium dry. Deservedly big-selling, refreshing, airy quencher, nice helping of spritzy fruit but also deep satisfying flavour. Covers all the bases from core to pips - a great starter for cider virgins.

ADDLESTONES, SUFFOLK

PREMIUM CLOUDY CIDER 5.2%. Don't be put off by the smoggy character - this is easy-drinking, well-crafted mainstream cider as it should be. No flying arrows or Johnny Vaughan in sight.

THATCHER'S, SANDFORD, SOMERSET

PEAR CIDER 4,5%, sweet. Sexy and sensuous but never vulgar, this is the champagne-like sparkling perry that Babycham wanted to be. Real English pears, traditional method, they both make up this pearly and sparkling aperitif that is delicately scented and fit for the most elaborate entrée.

KINGSTONE PRESS, ASTON

DRY CIDER 5.0%v. Deep-bronze, beautifully balanced mainstream big-seller - and deservedly so.

KERISAC, GUENROUET, BRITTANY

CIDRE BOUCHÉ 5,0%, medium-sweet. Medal-winning, pale and ethereal sparkler of a Breton cider with enough zing from the natural carbonation ( a traditional staple of the great French bouché tradition) to offset the immoderate sweetness of its dessert apple base. Complex, crémant, sensational.

Our aim is to stock artisanal ciders from Wales, the Marches, Brittany - well, wherever - when we can. If you like what you've tried, you'll find info about real cider in the bar. And phone ahead if you want to know what's on next - or to make a suggestion!

Iechyd da!
Yec'hed mat!