Wine bars in London

Q: How are the places chosen?

How the Guide picks places is set out at https://guide.vanalondon.com/how-vana-chooses.

56 wine bars in London, each one on the Guide on merit.

107 Wine Bar
Natural wine bar · European · Clapton
The old P. Franco brought back to life under a leftover cash-and-carry sign. Ten natural wines by the glass and a chef cooking French on two induction hobs at the back.
Mostly walk-in, though a few tables go up online. The kitchen only runs Wednesday to Saturday.
28 Church Row
Wine bar · Hampstead
A wine-led basement on Hampstead's smartest Georgian row, all wooden beams and a teal panelled bar. Croquetas, charcuterie and a specials board built around meat from the butcher up the road.
No reservations, so just drop in. Dinner runs daily, with lunch Friday to Sunday if you want it quieter.
40 Maltby Street
Wine bar · Bermondsey
A natural-wine warehouse wedged into a railway arch where the menu is a chalkboard that changes every week and nobody takes your booking.
They do not take bookings, so turn up early in the week or right on opening to get a table.
51 Cave à Manger
Wine bar · Exmouth Market
An Exmouth Market wine bar where the bottles are serious and the bar stools and heated pavement seats are kept free for walk-ins.
Reservations are dining-only, so for just wine and a plate head for the bar seats or the heated tables outside.
Aspen & Meursault
Natural wine bar · Battersea
Sunny Hodge brings the Diogenes the Dog philosophy to Battersea. Low-intervention wine with an argument behind every pour, for people who want the bottle explained.
Ask the team to talk you through a glass; the whole place is built to convert natural-wine sceptics.
Baby Bacchus
Wine bar · City of London
A City wine bar down a Bank-side lane with a wall of two hundred bottles, all walk-in after dark. Drink in or pull one off the shelf to take away.
Evenings are walk-in only, so come at lunch if you want a guaranteed seat.
Bar Blondie
Natural wine bar · Queen's Park
The Milk Beach site reborn: a 160-bin low-intervention list from an award-winning sommelier, poured beside a proper southern-European kitchen doing fresh pasta, grilled sharing plates and artichoke alla Giudia. More restaurant than wine bar, and adults only.
Come on a tasting or chess night - the cultural programme is half the reason to be here. Strictly 21 and over, and closed Mondays.
Bar Gemišt
Wine bar · Holloway
A Holloway coffee roaster by day that turns wine bar after dark, all central island bar and corner sofas. The drinks list takes risks, right down to a Sauerkraut Martini.
Order the Sauerkraut Martini. The same room is Rua Coffee by day.
Blinds
Wine bar · Hackney Road
A natural wine bar and shop in a former blinds shop, understated and very likeable.
There is no kitchen out back, so come for the wine and snacks, not a full dinner.
Bonne Route
Wine bar · Harringay
A dim little room by Harringay station that fills the moment it opens, pouring orange wine until the pavement seats are the only ones left.
No bookings and it fills fast, so arrive at opening or be ready to take a chair out on the pavement.
Bottle + Rye
Wine bar · Brixton
A 28-seat corner bar at the mouth of Brixton Village where the Gills grill honey-washed bread under a slab of butter and call it anchovy toast.
It is tiny and fills fast, so aim for an early sitting or perch at the curved bar.
Cantina Boccone
Wine bar · Deptford
Sixteen seats under the Deptford Market Yard arches, pouring the Portuguese and Italian bottles nobody else in London bothers with. Opened this July and already hard to get into.
Cecilia's Wine House
Wine bar · Covent Garden
A Covent Garden wine bar with a thoughtful list and a warm, low-lit room that holds you longer than you planned.
It is a short walk from the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, so it makes an easy after-curtain stop.
Clarette
Wine bar · Marylebone
A swanky three-floor wine bar in a mock-Tudor Marylebone townhouse, part-owned by the Château Margaux family. The by-the-glass list is the draw, with Margaux poured through Coravin.
The Coravin list lets you drink grand Bordeaux vintages by the glass, including several Chateau Margaux, without committing to a whole bottle.
Cobalto
Wine bar · Fulham
An ultramarine-tiled wine bar and bottle shop, the neighbourhood spot Fulham needed.
The by-the-glass selection rotates weekly, so ask what has just been opened.
Crystal Palace Wine Club
Wine bar · Crystal Palace
A dog-friendly neighbourhood wine bar that takes English wine seriously and itself less so. Tom will point you somewhere good.
Ask Tom for an English pour by the glass, that is the house specialism.
dan's
Natural wine bar · Dalston
A Dalston natural wine bar with a sharp, ever-changing list and a crowd that cares about what's in the glass.
Go early on a weekday and let the staff pick your glass; the list rotates weekly.
Dave's Wine Bar
Wine bar · City of London
A proper City wine bar where the meat on your plate was reared on the owner's own farm.
Aim for the terrace on a warm afternoon and order the grazing plates over a full meal.
Diogenes the Dog
Wine bar · Walworth
A wine bar where nearly all the staff are working sommeliers, so a solo seat is a free education.
Ask the sommelier team to pour you something from a region you have never tried.
Ebi Wines
Wine bar · Clerkenwell
A low-key Clerkenwell wine bar and bottle shop from Raku Oda, a Master of Wine student who was assistant head sommelier at the three-Michelin-starred Fat Duck. The list roams from Wiltshire and Wales to Italy and Austria, poured in a small Rosebery Avenue room that takes walk-ins only.
Go Wednesday to Sunday and let the list lead; it changes constantly.
Finch Wine Bar
Wine bar · Brixton
A jewel-box of a wine bar in the market that finally takes English wine seriously. Order the sparkling and a board of cheese.
It is tiny, so go early or be ready to perch and wait for a stool.
Forza Wine
Wine bar · Peckham
A rooftop wine bar on a former Rye Lane car park, with Italian-ish small plates and a skyline terrace. Covered and heated, so it works in winter too.
Sunset slots on the terrace go first, so book the early-evening window for a seat with the view.
Frankie's W10
Wine bar · Ladbroke Grove
A tiny Portobello living room that happens to pour very good wine. Curation over volume, conversation over crowds.
It is a shop as well as a bar, so grab a bottle to take home on your way out.
Giacco's
Wine bar · Highbury
A little Blackstock Road wine bar with an ever-changing guest-chef menu. The kind of under-the-radar neighbourhood spot the best evenings are built on.
The kitchen is a rotating chef residency, so the menu changes every month or so.
Goodbye Horses
Wine bar · Islington
A candlelit wine bar with a wall of vinyl and small plates with real critical momentum. A Bib Gourmand that stays a proper bar.
It stays busy even midweek and seats on shared tables, so book rather than chancing a walk-in.
Half Cut Market
Wine bar · European · Caledonian Road
A wine bar in an unpromising spot that grew into a proper food destination.
It is open for dinner Tuesday to Saturday, but you can buy wine to take away any time the doors are open.
Harty's Wine & Charcuterie Bar
Wine bar · Barnes
Barnes does a neighbourhood wine bar properly here, cheese rotating and charcuterie local. Easy to lose an evening.
Book ahead, but they will squeeze in walk-ins when they can.
Hometipple
Wine bar · Walthamstow Village
Small and wine-led, grown-up and social. Worth knowing if you're out this way.
The covered, heated rear patio is the spot to aim for, and the residency chef changes roughly every six months.
Høst Wine Bar
Wine bar · Lower Clapton
A tiny Chatsworth Road bar pouring Italian wine that never sits still, with charcuterie to match. Stays open late at the weekend.
Closed Sundays and Mondays, and it runs to 1am Friday and Saturday.
Indie Wine Club
Wine bar · Tooting
A proper market-stall wine bar where the list changes with the weather and nobody is precious about it.
Pull up at the counter on a guest-chef night and let them pour you something off-list.
Jerome's Wine Bar & Shop
Wine bar · Lewisham
A Lewisham wine bar and bottle shop with a sharp low-intervention list and a proper neighbourhood feel. Bottles to drink in or carry home.
It doubles as a bottle shop, so drink in or take the same wine home at shop prices.
Joyau
Wine bar · Forest Gate
A railway-arch wine bar that earns the word jewel, especially with the terrace full on a warm evening.
Come early in rose season or you will hear the packed terrace before you can find a seat.
Joyce
Wine bar · Brockley
Twelve taps in an old funeral parlour, named after someone's nan, which is about as Brockley as it gets.
Go for the taps over the bottle list, since the keg wine and beer is the whole point.
L'ami JAC
Wine bar · Hammersmith
An intimate slice of France on Shepherds Bush Road, the kind of place where the owner just hands you the right bottle.
Let Jean-Charles pick the wine, then build a deli board to go with it.
Lady of the Grapes
Wine bar · London Bridge
Carole Bryon's second natural-wine bar, in the Menier Chocolate Factory, championing female and natural producers alongside French bistro plates.
Head downstairs to Forbidden Fruit, the vaulted speakeasy, for the all-female wine list.
Le Regret
Natural wine bar · Leytonstone
A tiny natural-wine bar with a lived-in, regulars-and-good-bottles quality.
There is a small standing spot at the back called Le Coin du Cochon where you can watch the kitchen.
Lower Wine Bar & Bottleshop
Wine bar · Waterloo
A Waterloo wine bar and bottle shop for low-intervention drinking. Pull up at the counter or take a bottle home.
Buy a bottle from the shop side to take away if the bar is full.
Luna
Wine bar · Shad Thames
A snug wine bar on Shad Thames pairing biodynamic bottles with simple seasonal plates.
Angle for one of the riverside terrace seats in warm weather.
Naughty Piglets
Natural wine bar · Brixton
A natural-wine bar with a rotating chef-residency, laid-back but serious. French-leaning plates and an extensive low-intervention list.
Walk in for the jambon-beurre served Wednesday to Saturday between noon and 2pm.
Newcomer Wines
Wine bar · Dalston
An Austrian wine obsession with a secret garden attached. Worth the detour for the bottles you cannot find anywhere else.
Head straight through to the hidden back garden in summer and let the staff steer you off-piste on the Austrian list.
Oui Madame
Wine bar · European · Highbury
Salut's more modern sibling, candlelit and buzzing after dark. The kitchen has real ambition.
It only opens for dinner Tuesday to Saturday, so book ahead and go hungry for the sharing menu.
Passione Vino Exmouth Market
Wine bar · Exmouth Market
No wine list, just Luca telling you what to drink. Trust him and order the oxtail sandwich.
Do not ask for a list. Tell them what you fancy and let them pull the bottle.
People's Wine
Wine bar · Roman Road
A cosy French wine bar on Roman Road, low-intervention bottles from independent makers.
Let the chef in the open kitchen decide the food, and ask about lesser-seen French growers rather than ordering by habit.
Rind
Wine bar · Battersea
A little cheese and wine room in Battersea. Come for the tartare, stay for the deli fridge.
It is intimate, so book ahead rather than chance a walk-in.
SANE Sake & Wine Bar
Wine bar · Angel
A sake-first wine bar tucked into Camden Passage. The team has fine-dining miles on the clock.
Sit out on the passage when the weather holds and let them pour you sake by the glass.
Sessa
Wine bar · Herne Hill
A handwritten chalkboard, cheap good wine and a domestic calm. The sort of local you wish was yours.
The menu is chalkboard-only and changes often, so ask what is good that day rather than planning ahead.
Streatham Wine House
Natural wine bar · Streatham
A wine bar and shop on Streatham Hill leaning hard into organic and biodynamic growers. Sit in for a themed table tasting of three pours, or pull a bottle from the 300-strong shelf to take home.
Order a table tasting rather than a glass: three pours from one region, with someone telling you how each was made.
Swirl
Wine bar · Leyton
A railway-arch natural wine bar in Leyton, low-intervention bottles with charcuterie and small plates.
Ask what is open from Czechia or Slovakia; the bottles you will not have seen elsewhere are the point.
The Wine Tasting Shop
Wine bar · Balham
Buy a bottle off the shelf, pay a small corkage and stay for the cheese.
Drink in for the flat fee rather than buying by the glass, and catch a cellar tasting.
Top Cuvée
Natural wine bar · Highbury
A spacious Highbury natural-wine bar off Blackstock Road, daily-changing organic bottles and modern small plates. Come for the wine and the room.
The bar counter and the patio are kept back for walk-ins, so you can get in without a booking.
Tosi Gorgonzola
Wine bar · Mayfair
A one-cheese obsession done with a straight face, and it mostly works.
It hides on Bruton Place behind Berkeley Square, so book and look for the old garage frontage.
Veraison Wines
Natural wine bar · Camberwell
Patrycja Lorek ran the floor at 10 Cases before opening this small Camberwell room. Four reds, four whites and a weekly staff pick for a fiver, drawn from growers most lists never reach. Drink in, or take a bottle home.
Drink in or take a bottle home; it works both ways.
Vining Street Wine Club
Wine bar · Brixton
Natural and classic side by side, no lecture attached, and a garden most people walk past without noticing.
Pick a bottle off the shelf and pay the flat corkage to drink it in; it beats the by-the-glass list for value.
Wandering Grapes
Wine bar · Camden Town
Convivial, more neighbourhood pour than Camden tourist trap, with bottles that punch above the postcode.
Skip the high-street crowds and grab a seat under the canopy with a French natural and a board of cheese.
Wingnut Wines
Wine bar · London Fields
Small but mighty, zero snobbery and a list that punches miles above the shed it pours from.
There are only a handful of seats, so go early and let whoever is behind the counter pick your glass.
Yuki Bar
Natural wine bar · Asian · London Fields
A 20-seat arch from an ex-Noma and P Franco sommelier.
Go early or be ready to wait, as the bar holds only around twenty and does not take large groups.