Little London Wine Tour July 2019

UnscrewMe went out to discover two bright wine stars 🌟 in Hackney and a new name to remember in Holborn 🆕.

Despite enjoying some sunny days in July, we at UnscrewMe still kept exploring new and established places in London on our search for great wine. The summer seems to have slowed us down a bit, but finally we put all our notes together to provide some fresh recommendations.

Gezellig, Holborn, WC1

• Name: Gezellig
• Location: WC1, Holborn. This stretch of London for us is best characterised as “somewhere in between”. A very central location, yet not quite a huge destination itself.
• Background: As keen followers of Hot Dinners, as soon as we first read about Gezellig, we put it down on our list. And what should we say? It’s well worth a visit, the food is outstanding! And most recently, Londonist likes it too.
  But before that, it had already accumulated good ratings by others, such as ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by the Evening Standard GO London, a Silver Award by SquareMeal and an impressive 8.5 out of 10 by The Nudge.
• Wine Picks:
  2017 Riesling ‘Faß 16’ by Weingut Peter Lauer from the Saar region in Germany 🇩🇪. A great example of a Riesling with enticing minerality on the nose and refreshing lemon and grapefruit flavours on the palate combined with slight lime and peach notes.
  2017 Twyfeling Cinsault by Bosman Family Vineyards from Wellington in South Africa 🇿🇦 . Beautifully blending red forest fruit and spicy flavours, this wine still was surprisingly light with an enjoyable balance between the different flavour components.
• Tastings: As they only opened recently, they do not yet have any public events planned. They already hosted private wine events and are planning more events soon.

The Laughing Heart, Hackney, E2

• Name: The Laughing Heart
• Location: E2, Hackney. Leaving the City behind and venturing into the depths of cool and hip East London. Surprisingly close to another UnscrewMe favourite, Sager + Wilde on the very same road.
• Background: We had known about The Laughing Heart for a while. Every now and then, we walked past it, but never went in to find out what all the buzz is about. This “Late Night Wine Bar, Dining Room & Off Licence” is simply a top-notch restaurant with a fun and exciting wine list.
  If you are curious to learn more about the mind behind the place, you might enjoy reading an insightful interview with the owner in “the drinks business”.
  We’re a big fan of the overall design. The beautiful interior together with great service and delicious food make for an amazing experience.
  Once again, we were not the first to notice this, Marina O’Loughlin rated it 8 in the Guardian, Fay Maschler gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ in the Evening Standard GO London, wine experts Decanter rated it 8 and London institution SquareMeal honoured it with a Silver Award.
• Wine Picks:
  2015 Cremant de Limoux ‘Monsieur S’ Brut Nature by Etiene Fort from Languedoc-Roussillon in France 🇫🇷. A refreshing sparkling wine to start a dinner with. Clean, well-defined flavours of lemon, lime and green apple tickle the tongue and set the scene for the dinner to follow.
  2017 Vino Tinto by Silice Viticultores from Ribeira Sacra in the Galicia region in Spain 🇪🇸. A wine that definitely goes well with food. Starting with notes of cherry and red berries, the wine gets more intense by revealing hints of smoke and hitting you with some tannins to finish with darker berries. An interesting wine by an interesting project, made using traditional, local grape varieties including Mencia with a philosophy of minimum intervention, letting the wine do most of the work.
• Tastings: Unfortunately, for us, fortunately for them, they are busy enough running a restaurant and don’t plan to run wine tastings.

Bright, London Fields, E8

• Name: Bright
• Location: E8, London Fields. If Hackney Road was hip, Netil House by London Fields park moves the hipness dial up a good bit. Just off Broadway Market, this is probably as Hipster London as you can get, or at least pretty close.
• Background: This was our final stop of the evening and we just wanted to enjoy a it of cheese and wine. The place was incredibly busy, inside and outside, luckily we found a spot at the bar. The cheese selection is pretty good and the portion sizes bigger than we had expected, making us struggle to polish off the small plates we ordered. Good bread is always welcome, and Bright gets its bread from local artisan bakery E5 Bakehouse, an excellent choice. When it comes to the wine list, we would describe it as a somewhat acquired taste, largely focused on “natural wine”.
  Opened by the people behind wine bar P.Franco and wine shop Noble Fine Liquor, they obviously take their wine list seriously and are happy to guide you through the options.
  The food has been praised across the board, getting top reviews including ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by David Sexton in the Evening Standard GO London, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by TimeOut London, a whopping 9 by Grace Dent in the Guardian and some kind words by SquareMeal.
• Wine Picks:
  Faux Sans Blanc by Sylvain Bock from the Ardèche department in the Northern Rhône region in France 🇫🇷. A blend of Chardonnay and Grenache Blanc grapes with a funny name. The delicate nose makes it an easy wine to like instantly, followed by floral notes on the palate with a pleasant peachy fruit character. While it can present itself with some musty notes at first, it is actually a round and smooth wine with an elegant structure and a hint of savoury notes too.
  2017 Riesling by Kumpf et Meyer from Alsace in France 🇫🇷. We wanted to like this one, we want to like any Riesling, but this was probably a bit too far down the “natural wine” scale for our palates. We should probably give it a bit more time…
• Tastings: A small and busy space, we are not aware of wine tasting events at Bright.

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With August slowly drawing to a close after the upcoming bank holiday, we are busy scribbling up some wine highlights for July and August, while also adding plenty of new events for September.