London Wine Scene (No.1)

Be sure to try the sherry straight from the barrel at Gordon's I'm partial to the Oloroso this time of year...

Hi All,

Since the days of Samuel Pepys enjoying bottles of Haut-Brion at the Royal Oak Tavern, and before, wine has been a part of London’s venerable drinking culture. However modern London became a beer city through and through and for a long time wine was relegated to the world of luxury and genteel social circles.

London is an increasingly interesting place for both food and wine; the latter being a more recent development which was for a time hampered by the city’s love affair with craft beer. Now far from hurting the wine scene, craft beer has proven to be a valuable role model for the capital’s oenocentric establishments. Just as the last decade saw a

sustained trend toward craft beer bars there is a revamped interest in wine making inroads into London’s well-established drinking culture.

Bars dedicated to grape over grain are increasingly common and popular among the city’s drinkers and as a result the variety and quality on offer are on the rise. For too long the legendary Gordon’s Wine Bar on Villiers Street stood alone, and while no new venture is yet to take this iconic cellar’s place at the top, there are some very exciting, niche wine bars taking the stage.

Sager+Wilde's industrial-rustic bar.

The city’s ‘E’ postcodes have long been a heartland for the latest and greatest in London’s various trends. It is here that the wine scene in our fair city is moving forward the quickest. Sager+Wilde is an excellent place to enjoy a well-curated wine list which combines value with exceptional quality. The wine list is among the city’s best and unlike many places claiming as much, it’s not a leather bound book the length of a Tolstoy novel.

Spread across 12 concise pages, this list has plenty to cater to the classicist's needs as well as plenty for the eclecticist’s imaginations. The bubbly list is wall-to-wall with top growers including Jacques Selosse and Cedric Bouchard and includes a funky vintage 1992 number from Copeland Vineyards (Russian River Valley). The rest of the list is packed with gems, from little known Loire reds and Jura whites to blue-blooded burgundies such as Ramonet, Leroy and Hudelot-Noellat. The Rhone selection is immense and includes Cornas from Clape, top Cote-Rotie from Jamet as well as Pignan for very good prices. The ambience is perfect as well, with it's contradictory industrial-rustic style, making for a perfect venue to enjoy a rural product like wine in the heart of East London.

Moving back into the centre of the city, Terroirs on William IV Street, is a traditional wine bar that opened in 2008 and got everything perfect. The food is the right size and on-message with the majority of the wine list, focusing on Old World specialties from Italy, Spain and France. Though the list is a bit more expensive than Sager+Wilde, the prices are still reasonable and considering the central West End location, they’re pretty good indeed.

Terroirs is definitely worth visiting if you want to try out some more adventurous bottles as well, with one of the largest selections of ‘orange’ wines (essentially white wines made with skin contact like reds) in London. In addition, the wine list is actually a pleasure to read, with good introductions to each section, it’s refreshingly un-stuffy and engaging.

I will keep exploring the wine bars of the capital and be sure to report back regularly on my findings. Until then,

Much Love,

G