Best wine bars in London Whether you want rustic bistros or the best in upscale drinking, David Ellis has found the capital's top spots for a glass of the good stuff Tuesday 22 September 2015 08:40 BST London's best wine bars There's an old joke that justifies the love of wine: nobody ever came up with a brilliant idea after their second bottle of water. And wine drinking, like any upstanding pastime, requires a little practice. Fortunately, London is pleasingly rammed with decent bars all honouring the grape's greatest achievement (a moth turning into a butterfly has nothing on this humble fruit transforming into a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape.) The city is even producing its own stuff, as Gavin Monery from London Cru explains in the video below. The idea of a wine bar has a little stigma attached, but fortunately, old-fashioned sommeliers with intimidating moustaches and dismissive glances have long been banished from the best of London's wine hotspots.

The idea of small, snobby rooms can be thrown out like the sediment in an old bottle – wine drinking in London is meant to be fun, not an extended lecture. Whether a quiet night savouring a modest fifteen glasses of white with a friend is on the cards or a celebratory evening of champagne is required, London caters for all. Our list includes old-fashioned bistros, one of the finest restaurants in town, a modern spin on things and true a London institution. Explore, be merry, learn a little, and raise a glass to good health. Follow David Ellis on Twitter @dvh_ellis Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout Things to do in LondonBuried deep beneath cobbled streets in Covent Garden, Gordon's Wine Bar is composed of multiple caves and tunnels filled with small candlelit tables and copious bottles of wine, which is somehow more romantic than it is gimmicky. Gordon's has been around since 1890, and is still going strong serving its wide selection of global wines (ranging from red to rosé to vegan) and a handful of snacks, such as cheese plates, a smoked salmon salad, and peppers stuffed with feta cheese.

Back in the old days when wine bars offered a choice between Bordeaux and Burgundy and possibly a dusty bottle of Chianti or two, there was a company called Les Caves de Pyrenes doing their best to change it all. Their head buyer/spirit animal Eric Narioo was traversing the forgotten regions of France buying wines made by the same people who tended the vines and more often than not the wines were made with minimal intervention. top rated wine barsThey tasted thrillingly different.what time can you buy wine in houston Redolent of earth and herbs, occasionally cloudy and always exciting, Eric and Les Caves de Pyrenes fired the starting shot that introduced natural wine and the increasingly informal wine bar culture of the new wave. buy ice wine in usa

Eric opened his own bistro and wine bar, Terroirs, just round the corner from Charing Cross station. It has a gloriously French food menu, so expect earthy boudin noir, lots of cheese and charcuterie and an enormous wine list that runs from everyday vin de soif up to the modern classics of the natural wine world.buying wine for a party Since opening Terroirs, the Les Caves stable has grown to include Soif in Battersea, Brawn on Columbia Road (now separated from the mother ship but still excellent) and ToastED in East Dulwich. age of wine to drinkAll will furnish you with superb wine.best wine in houston Terroirs, 5 William IV Street, WC2N 4DWcheap red wine sg Michael Sager and Charlotte Wilde took over a site on the Old Street roundabout, opening a few bottles and toasting a few cheese sandwiches. cheap red wine sg

Their pop up soon morphed into Sager + Wilde on Hackney Road and suddenly there was a wine bar as cool as anything the cocktail world could concoct. A wine-by-the-glass list that was as equally happy covering forgotten classics as it was with European avant garde was matched by a cellar packed full of older vintages and the kind of bottles that are catnip to those with a wine habit.buy wine bottles for homemade wine Sager + Wilde soon grew again to include their larger site on Paradise Row in Bethnal Green where the food menu is larger and more serious. Sager + Wilde, Arch 250 Paradise Row, E2 9LE and 193 Hackney Rd E2 8JL It was surely only a matter of time before the big boys of the restaurant world took notice. Restaurant giants D&D opened New Street Wine Shop as part of their sprawling Old Bengal Warehouse site. It’s an almost unmanageably huge selection of wines that covers nearly the entire globe, from the posher ends of Bordeaux and Burgundy through funky small growers in Australia.

Despite being right in the heart of the city, it’s incredibly reasonably priced. New Street Wine Shop, 16 New Street, EC2M 4TR Deliveroo now from The City Noble Rot (Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew) first shook up the London wine scene by creating a wine magazine that people actually wanted to both read and be seen reading. They built on their reputation for being on the pulse of international wine fashion by nabbing the chef from The Sportsman in Whitstable (also about as cool as restaurants get at the moment) to refurb one of the old guards of the London wine bar scene. Expect a who’s who of London glitterati and wine trade to be mingling over bottles of recherché grape varieties from the Jura and Northern Italy and bleedingly cool grower Champagne. They then descend downstairs to tuck into slip sole with oxidised Burgundy sauce. Noble Rot, 51 Lamb's Conduit St, WC1N 3NB Smaller and more informal than Noble Rot, the Remedy has established Great Portland Street as a food and drink destination (something we didn’t think was possible).

An ever-changing menu of food and wine, brilliant staff and a bafflingly good selection of vermouths have ensured that we’ve found ourselves in this part of London often. The Remedy, 124 Cleveland Street, W1T 6PQ Think of the winemakers club as the record shop that always had the coolest white labels. It’s not the swishest of venues, indeed it can be occasionally a bit chilly and dark, but if you’re looking to stay in the know, John Baum and the rest of the team are usually several steps ahead of anyone else. As an aside, Winemakers Club also has some of the best value old Bordeaux in London. The Winemakers Club, 41a Farringdon Street, EC4A 4AN Sometimes we don’t want to go all the way into central London for a glass of wine, and thankfully there is a small but growing number of excellent wine bars just a little bit further out. Alex at 161 Kirkdale, formerly of Toast in East Dulwich, struck out on his own deeply philanthropic mission to bring excellent natural wine to the formerly ignored folk of Sydenham Hill and Forest Hill.