It's London Wine Week, and bars and restaurants all around the capital are putting on special events to celebrate. But where are the best venues to enjoy a glass of the grape stuff? 28-50 Wine Workshop & Kitchen 28-50 has three branches (the other two are in Fetter Lane and Marylebone) but this one, close to Regent St, is my favourite to pop into for an early evening glass or two and a simple plate of food. Style-wise, 28-50 mixes Mayfair gloss with a relaxed vibe. Wine-wise, you’re guaranteed an interesting glass because the place was set up with wine in mind. I love that you can order 75ml tasting samples to help work your way through the entire by-the-glass menu. Good for samples: 28-50 17-19 Maddox St, W1S 2QH 2850.co.uk POP UP Franciacorta Bar Franciacorta is the northern Italian take on champagne: sparkling wine made using the traditional method from chardonnay and pinot noir (with a bit of pinot blanc in there too). Half a century ago, just 3,000 bottles of franciacorta were made every year.

Now that figure is 14million and, until recently almost unknown in this country, franciacorta is starting to have a bit of a fashion moment. Pop into the Andaz to try a flight of three different styles of franciacorta (pronounced francha-corta) for £5 (London Wine Week wrist band wearers) or £9 and a plate of matching stuzzichini (nibbles) for £5. Just don’t mention prosecco. • Amazing bars to drink at before you die The 10 Cases A small, casual wine bar with bistro food just out of the way of the busy bits of Covent Garden. The number ten is important here: ten tables, ten white wines and ten red wines. Also, as if keeping to a tricky new year resolution never to become boring, the owners never buy more than ten cases of any particular wine, so ensuring that the wine list is an ever-changing, ever-tempting work of art. Never boring: 10 Cases 16 Endell St, Covent Garden 10cases.co.uk • Caviar and cognac: the crazy world of mega-rich foodies The Remedy This place is tiny. And with its bare brick walls, squashy banquettes, dim lighting and pleasingly junk shop vibe it feels like being in a speakeasy.

Or a French wine bar circa 1971. But you won’t find that sort of wine list. The mission here is to work with small, independent producers to bring unusual wines, made in often titchy quantities, into the glasses of London wine lovers. best wine to celebrate withExpect the gloriously unusual: ribolla gialla, irouleguy, Georgian kvevri wine. best wine in ilLast time I was here the chalkboard had a very unassuming but absolutely majestic list of madeiras by the glass. best wine on diet Big Bottles Taste Better Jointly hosted by Noble Rot (the wine fanzine) and Mission (the gorgeous Bethnal Green bar specializing in Californian wine) this promises to be quite a party, with the wine list for the night eclectic, wide-ranging – and all poured out of magnum. Because big is better.

London Wine Week Closing Party. Mission, 250 Paradise Row, E2 9LE. 28°-50° Wine Workshop & Kitchen This exciting collaboration between sommelier Xavier Rousset and executive chef Agnar Sverrisson (their second, following haute cuisine restaurant Texture) is focused on wine, but has much more attention on food than the average wine bar. KWR is thoroughly modern in using dispensers to keep wine fresh for longer, so allowing single glasses to be served and thus facilitating experimentation. The name ‘Mission’ doesn’t refer to a position, or even a crusade to save souls. It is a homage to California where the wine country is littered with Spanish Missions: the first sacramental grape was called The Mission. This Mission – named after the San Francisco neighbourhood – is a big step up for Michael and Charlotte Sager-Wilde (of critically acclaimed wine bar Sager & Wilde). Coming from the pair behind the wine mag of the same name, Noble Rot is an old-school hangout with a soul that is very much still alive.

Cracked stone floors, dodgy brown furniture and vineyard-themed frescos are a throwback to the former site of Vats and the food is as classic and unpretentious as the surroundings - we're still swooning over a stunning piece of monkfish in a tangy white wine sauce. Warm, knowledgeable staff are lovely, while in the front the room, the boisterous spirit of a wine bar is very much alive – hardly surprising, given the affordability of the list (with a sizeable by-the-glass offering kicking off at £3 for a 75ml ‘sampler’, or bottles from £20). The Quality Chop House carries deliberate echoes of its 19th-century origins by offering ‘a chop and a glass’. Wine rather than ale is the main draw now (though Kernel beer is offered). There’s a wine shop alongside the bar and dining room, with plenty to interest both casual sippers and serious imbibers. In the 90s and Noughties, ‘ABC’ – Anything But Chardonnay – was the term used to describe a movement that avoided the obvious, the mass-produced, the populist.

More than a decade later, in a city that’s now brimming with exciting and unusual wines to try, there’s no excuse for ordering the usual. Pop down to The Remedy for some proper excitement in your glass. With its good looks and pooch-friendly policies, this Hoxton wine bar (a Shoreditch pop-up gone permanent) has plenty going for it. Not to mention a flat-rate £20 mark-up per bottle. Venue says: “Join our next 'Cellar Cinema' on May 15 at 7pm. Screening "Good Tings Await" plus a glass of wine £15. Terroirs positions itself as an evangelist for natural wines, but is equally valued for the quality of its informal French cooking and its buzzy atmosphere. Venue says: “May 2 - May 3: Stop by our 'Giro d' Italia' wine tasting series - £20 + 5% off wine on the night. The term ‘vin naturel’ – natural wine – was revived in France during the 1980s to describe a process of ‘natural’ fermentation, with minimal intervention in the viticultural process. Terroirs in London pioneered a similar approach in 2001, and soon had branches, as well as imitators – Toasted is the latest in the Terroirs tradition.