London 2024 is a city awash in natural wine, deep into a second formative wave of openings keen on low-intervention and biodynamic booze. ‘Natural’ here basically means created (give or take a trace-level dusting of stabilising sulphur) without the addition of synthetic yeasts, chemicals and spurious preservatives in the way that industrially-made or ‘conventional’ wine is – revealing a world of flavour and expression of terroir almost impossible to imagine in the mainstream a decade ago. Here are some of the best places in London to drink it now.
The Wallpaper* map of London's best natural wine bars
Cadet, Newington Green
An airy, blissfully ascetic spot on the edge of Newington Green – a vision of liver-coloured formica, recherche metal lampshades and posters designed for the bar’s myriad winemaker events – Cadet is the brainchild of wine importers Tom Beattie and Francis Roberts, chef Jamie Smart and charcuterie George Jephson. Not for zip is it one of the hottest properties on the London scene; its meticulous list taking in everything from smashable sparkling pinot gris courtesy Austria’s Christoph Lindenlaud to rarefied savagnin from the Jura.
57 Newington Green, N16 9PX
107, Clapton
Rising from the ashes of P Franco – bona-fide first-wave icon, the sudden shuttering of which remains a mystery to most – 107 has kept near everything but the name of its original guise: be that the general manager (William Gee), the low intervention remit, the single central communal table, even the cutlery. Crucially, its walk-ins only policy and a garrulous, near-pedagogic approach to pouring outré bottles from across the natural spectrum also remains. A generational classic.
107 Lower Clapton Road, E5 0NP
Bar Levan, Peckham Rye
Thrumming offshoot of the Modern European stalwart Levan next door – and located in what was once Larry’s, another natty wine mainstay – Bar Levan is inspired by the Parisian caves à manger model but with an inimitable Peckham twist (that is to say: DJs). The zippy natural, biodynamic and organic carte is all served by the glass, and might include anything from the Wiltshire-based Offbeat’s hazy Field Notes 2 to a chilled, five-grape red blend from Serbia’s Oszkár. House pours are a bargain £6 and the croque monsieur is textbook ballast.
Unit 5, 12-16 Blenheim Grove, SE15 4QL
Sune, Hackney
Honey Spencer – wine director of the Palomar Group (thus: Palomar, Barbary, The Mulwray, Evelyn’s Table), author of the excellent Natural Wine, No Drama and general drinks world doyenne – may have reached her zenith with Sune. An off-Broadway Market restaurant, launched with her partner (and former Noma GM) Charlie Sims, it’s singlehandedly revitalising the ‘small plates and natural wine’ trend – not least through a democratically priced list that skews pan-European for the most (give or take a fistful of New World bottles) with a neat provision of labels from Georgia, Greece and the Czech Republic.
129A Pritchard's Road, E2 9AP
Hector’s, De Beauvoir
The bustling murmur of outdoor drinkers and a sunny yellow awning marks your arrival at Hector’s, a lynchpin of the ever-fertile De Beauvoir/Dalston wine axis. There’s a short and sweet list of things by the glass but, being a bottle shop, more palpable excitement can be found by nabbing a vividly-labelled bottle from the shelves or emptying one’s wallet with one of the rarer vintages from the cellar room behind the bar. Simple plates of charcuterie and cheese, or bijous tons of tuna belly and anchovies in oil, complete the breezy scene.
49a Ardleigh Road, N1 4HS
Bar Crispin, Carnaby
Dom Handley’s Crispin group (which also includes an OG site at Spitalfields, the zeitgeisty Cripsin at Studio Voltaire in Clapham and Shoreditch’s Bistro Freddie) has been quietly carving a niche at the fore of the London wine scene for years. No more so than in this, its Lilliputian bar on Kingly Street. Unusually, the wine list is organised not by region, but by climes – Mediterranean, Maritime and Continental – while the house tap wines are sourced from a Campanian co-operative.
19 Kingly Street, W1B 5PY
Sager + Wilde, Hackney
Michael Sager’s iconic Hackney Road bar, Sager + Wilde, might be part of the furniture these days, but there’s no dismissing its pioneering, trend-setting status. Come for the feted toasties and striking bar made from glass pavement tiles, stay for the deeply considered list, heavy with French and Italian bottles and spanning everything from hyper-summery catarratto to oenophile-baiting bottles like Eduardo Valentini’s pink Trebbiano d'Abruzzo (plus gewürztraminer / cherry ‘Beetle Juice’ and rarefied lambic beers for the wine-agnostic).
193 Hackney Road, E2 8JL
Quality Wines, Farringdon
Such is the fervour behind the casually brilliant plates Nick Bramham knocks out on a couple of hot plates at this sister site to Farringdon’s Quality Chop House, that it’s sometimes easy to overlook the booze. But maintain focus: Marcos Spyrou and Emidio Russo’s heaving shelves are an absolute trove, with a heady provision of riesling and chenin blanc plucked out from the wider, overwhelmingly Old World inventory (which also includes several hoofing, conventionally-produced vintages for the deep pocketed).
88 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3EA
The Pelican, Notting Hill
Its demographic might be almost comically braying (we’re deep into signet ring territory here), but The Pelican is a clattery gem. A vision of distressed and muted design-mag hues, low lighting and a menu that doesn’t so much nod to St John as bear-hug it, it also boasts an excellent list brimming with low-intervention treasures: from Tim Wildman’s Lost in a Field English/Welsh blend pet nat, to gamay from Beaujolais’s Chateau Cambon (made from vines once owned by Jules Chauvet, one of the regions OG natural winemakers).
45 All Saints Road, W11 1HE
