Top 10 London wine bars

As London finally emerges from five years of recession, the capital’s wine bar scene has never been so explosive. With Hackney newcomer Sager & Wilde shining a light on little-known drops, the humble wine bar is suddenly back on Londoners’ radars.

Of course it never went away, but rather than having to scrape the proverbial barrel for somewhere to go for a decent glass of red, the capital is currently heaving with cosy, classy, charming and unpretentious spots in which to seek out hard-to-find wines by the glass, bottle and carafe.

While not all wine bars are immune to the vicious competition the capital enforces – natural wine specialists Bar Battu on Gresham Street and Artisan & Vine in Battersea both closed their doors last year, bars with a strong identity like 28-50 and Vinoteca are branching out and expanding their businesses into mini chains.

With many following the formula of a small, ever-changing wine list, low mark ups and a smart small plates offering, there’s never been a better time to indulge your passion for wine. Disagree with our order or feel we’ve left a corker out? Let us know by leaving a comment in the box below. Santé!

10. 40 Maltby Street

Housed at the front of Gergovie Wines’ warehouse under a railway arch near London Bridge, 40 Maltby Street has grown to become a fully fledged wine bar run by Raef Hodgson.

Boasting the exposed brickwork and piping you’d expect from its underground setting, 40 Maltby Street specialises in natural, organic and biodynamic wines from France, Italy and Slovenia, which can either be bought to take home or enjoyed for a £12 mark up at the bar, complete with chalk boards and low hung green lamps, alongside a series of seasonally-focused small plates such as pork and green peppercorn terrine and smoked haddock croquettes.

The menu changes on a daily basis, and, as you might expect, the bar doesn’t take reservations.

40 Maltby Street, London SE1 3PA; Tel: +44 (0)20 7237 9247

9. The Sampler, South Kensington

Jamie Hutchinson’s South Kensington sister to his Islington original is well worth a detour. Split across two floors, beneath the gleaming Enomatic machines on the ground floor is a charming basement bar prettified with old Sherry posters and wine crates where you can take your sipping glass and relax with plates of charcuterie, cheese, and some of the best duck rillettes in town.

The wine selection is ever-changing, but you can expect to find a strong Spanish line-up, including some of Rioja’s finest old reds from Paternina, Cune and Lopez de Heredia at scandalously low prices, along with Sherries from boutique producer La Bota and exciting examples from Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône, the Loire and the best of the New World.

The Sampler, 35 Thurloe Place, London SW7 2HP; Tel: +44 207 225 5091

8. Green Man & French Horn

This Loire specialist from the team behind Terroirs, Brawn and Soif earns its place on the list for taking a risk with a little-known region for the majority of the wine drinking public.

With rustic interiors including open brickwork walls, low hung factory lamps, old clocks and lipstick red bar stools, this Covent Garden curio is full of liquid treasures from the château-filled riverside region, taking in Sancerre, Vouvray, Touraine, Anjou, Pouille Fumé et al with an impressive selection by the glass and carafe.

Many of the ingredients in the sharing plates come by way of the Loire, and include the likes of languoustines à la plancha; mussels, fennel and Noilly Prat; and mackerel tartare, cucumber, oyster and seaweed.

Green Man & French Horn, 54 St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4EA; Tel: +44 (0)20 7836 2645

7. Fulham Wine Rooms 

Another Enomatic specialist, while we love the Kensington original, the Fulham Wine Rooms is something of a rebellious younger sister that brightens up a rather dull end of the Fulham Road with its central bar hanging with jamón legs (which can be hand cut into charcuterie platters) and paprika peppers.

Ideal for a post work libation (or three), the bar boasts a dizzying array of wines by the sip to choose from, starting at an incredibly reasonable £3.50 per glass and working up to £45 for a Super Tuscan such as Sassicaia. Load up a plastic card with credit, run riot on the vending machines and pair your findings with tapas-style sharing plates.

Fulham Wine Rooms, 871-873 Fulham Road, London SW6 5HP; Tel: +44 (0)20 7042 9440

6. Quality Chop House 

With Jancis Robinson MW’s son Will Lander at the helm, the wine offering at this charming wine bar and bistro was always going to be exemplary. Having run as a restaurant since 1869, Lander was keen to keep its original features, such as its black and white chequered floor, marble table tops and wooden pews.

At the bar, you can choose a bottle from the adjoining shop and pay a small corkage fee to enjoy it propped up on a stool. Wines by the glass start from £4 and the site has just introduced a “one offs” section to its wine list.

Sourced from private collectors, you’re unlikely to find these wines anywhere else in the UK. Every Monday, the Chop House opens one of these gems to serve by the glass, with California’s Au Bon Climat Dennison Vineyard 1998 making a recent cameo. Small plates meanwhile are served on adorable mismatching crockery.

Quality Chop House, 92-94 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3EA; Tel: +44 (0)20 7278 1452

5. Sager & Wilde 

Credit: Will Graham Photography

This new kid on the London wine bar block is the drinking den everyone’s talking about. Located in trendy Hackney, Sager + Wilde is the brainchild of entrepreneurial, wine loving husband and wife duo, Charlotte and Michael Sager-Wilde. Achingly hip in a stylish and unpretentious way, this no reservations bar, which began life as a pop-up last year, is gritty in its design, with open brickwork walls, 1920s station lights and a cast iron bar.

S&W serves everything from big gun producers like California’s Ridge to obscure boutique names via Basque Txakoli and Mosel Riesling, including hard-to-source bottles for a set £20 mark up, meaning the more you pay, the better value you get on your chosen bottle. Liquid offerings can be mopped up with charcuterie plates and cheese sarnies.

Sager & Wilde, 193 Hackney Road, London E2 8JL 

4. The 10 Cases

Wine is given the spotlight at The 10 Cases in Covent Garden, which prides itself on only ever snapping up ten cases of each of the wines it sells, hence keeping its wine list a moveable feast. Offering almost indecently fair mark ups on bottles, the bar lists just 10 reds and 10 whites on its menu from the likes of Zind Humbrecht, Bruno Giacosa and Raats Family Wines, with everything available by the glass and carafe.

Modestly decked out in monochrome, with black leather banquettes, white walls and chalkboards announcing the day’s edible offerings, available wines are written on strips of brown paper running the length of the walls and ceremoniously slashed through when the bottles run dry. Snacks have a Spanish accent, with the likes of pimientos padrón and salt and pepper squid served up alongside heartier offerings like braised pork belly.

The 10 Cases, 16 Endell Street, London WC2H 9BD; Tel: +44 (0)20 7836 6801

3. 28-50 

There seems to be no stopping Master Sommelier Xavier Rousset and Icelandic chef Agnar Sverrison, with their adorable Fleet Street wine bar, 28-50, having quickly grown to a three-strong mini chain. With sites in Marylebone and Maddox Street now in the fleet, the ethos of offering a sensational selection of wines by the glass, carafe and bottle remains with Rousset particularly keen to offer hard-to-source bottles at fair mark ups on his Collectors List.

Named after the latitude at which vines can be grown, house wine starts at £3.90 a glass and £21 a bottle, with the wine line-up changing each month to keep things fresh. The all-day menu meanwhile, offers the likes of rich duck rillettes and its signature 28-day aged beef onglet and triple-cooked chips.

 28-50, 15-17 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2NE; Tel: +44 (0)20 7486 7922 

2. Gordon’s Wine Bar 

An oldie, but a goodie, no round-up of London wine bars would be complete without a hat tip to Gordon’s – the oldest wine bar in the capital. Opening its doors in 1890, Gordon’s has enjoyed a colourful history and was home to diarist Samuel Pepys in the 1680s.

Adding to its already oozing charm, very little has changed in the bar’s 120-year tenure – its wooden walls are covered in yellowing newspaper cuttings and posters from a bygone era, while the space is decorated with grandfather clocks, ornate vintage tills, old wine kegs and Champagne bottles cloaked in cobwebs. Both the lighting and the ceilings are low, which only adds to the atmosphere.

Food comes in the form of charcuterie plates, cheese platters and tapas, which make an ideal partner for the bar’s Sherry selection, which is served in the traditional way straight from the barrel and generously filled up to the rim, making them hard to swirl but easy to enjoy. 

Gordon’s Wine Bar, 47 Villiers Street, London WC2N 6NE; Tel: +44 (0)20 7930 1408

1. Vinoteca 

Topping our list is Vinoteca, which, in less than a week, will open its fourth site in leafy Chiswick to add to the Farrigdon original and its Soho and Marylebone siblings, the former of which boasts a feasting table and Prosecco on tap. Big on buzz, high on charm but refreshingly devoid of pretention, the 25 or so wines by the glass are exciting, intriguing and fairly marked up, with wine flights offering explorations into specific regions and grape varieties.

Smart small plates play on the brasserie theme and include the likes of smoked eel, leeks and lovage; John Dory with chorizo; and double-crusted meat pies. Interiors are light and French in feel, with open brickwork and Art Nouveau posters ruling the roost.

Vinoteca successfully takes the stuffiness out of wine and injects it with a much-needed dose of fun. It’s best to leave yourself in the capable hands of the friendly waiting staff and see what liquid treats they recommend.

Vinoteca, 53-55 Beak Street, London W1F 9SH; Tel: +44 (0)20 3544 7411