It’s official: wine is now Britain’s most popular alcoholic beverage. A 2015 poll commissioned by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association showed that wine is now the favoured alcoholic drink for 60 per cent of UK adults, compared to all other alcohol products.
Britain has been a nation of wine drinkers since the Romans first introduced us to the pleasures of wine 2,000 years ago. Indeed, vineyards have been cultivated here since Roman times - increasingly so, as global warming makes our climate more suitable to growing grapes.
But most of the wine we drink has been imported, France, Spain and Portugal being the chief sources to begin with. (The British were and still are heavily involved in the Portuguese port and Spanish sherry industries.) Wine for many years was the preserve of the well-to-do, but in the 1860s the British government reduced duty on wine, making it a cheaper alternative to beer and spirits. Wine was seen as a more “civilised” drink and the government, led by prime minister William Gladstone, hoped to change our drinking habits by making it cheaper.
This gave rise to a growth in Victorian wine-drinking. Some of the wine importers began to open up small bars and shops where wines could be sampled and drunk, along the lines of Italian enotecas (“wine libararies”). The British wine bar was born.
Victorian Vino
Some of these wine bars are still with us today. Gordons in London’s Charing Cross claims to be the oldest wine bar in London, dating back to 1890, and its cave-like interior is still redolent of those times: candles in bottles, dark wooden furniture and low brick arches create a world away from the bustle in the streets outside. Old newspaper cuttings and vintage memorabilia add to the atmosphere.
El Vino is another survivor from the Victorian era. This chain started out as a wine importing business and opened a wine bar in Fleet Street in the late 19th century which became a favourite hangout for lawyers and journalists. El Vino also became a battleground thanks to its policy of banning women customers from standing at the bar; for many years, women could only be served if they sat at tables at the rear. After a legal campaign, the practice was finally outlawed as discriminatory in 1978.
Another famous wine bar with Victorian origins is Davy’s, which again had its origins in the wine trade. Branches of Davy’s such as its Boot and Flogger in Southwark, London, which opened in 1964, epitomise the classic British wine bar: dark, solid wood tables and chairs, uniformed staff, and a simple menu of staple dishes such as sausage and mash or gammon and egg - plus, of course, an extensive wine list. (Beers by the bottle are also available here and in most wines bars.)
Bubbles and power dressing
In the 1960s and 70s, as wine drinking gained in popularity, the wine bar began to move with the times. Interiors became brighter, furniture lighter and less fusty, the food became more varied, and female customers - in contrast to the attitude of El Vino - were encouraged and welcomed. Shampers, which opened in London’s Soho in 1977, and is still in business today, was typical of the new breed of wine bars - its very name signifying bubbliness and fun.
The wine bar became associated with the power dressing 1980s and wine drinking became democratised. And the fact that Britain makes very little wine of its own became something of an advantage: whereas the French, Spanish and Italian markets were focused largely on serving wines from their own countries, the UK was free to pick and choose from the best wines across the world. Wines from countries such as Australia - once the subject of a derisory Monty Python sketch (“This one’s guaranteed to open up the sluices at both ends”) - became desirable.
In the 1990s Tony Blair’s government relaxed the UK’s licensing laws, giving pubs and bars freedom to open longer and later. As with the Victorians, the hope was that this would encourage a more “civilised” approach to alchohol, fostering a more continental style of drinking and eating. This had mixed results, but it certainly didn’t hinder the wine bar, giving them leeway to stay open for longer and fostering the growth of bars and cafes.
The new wave of wine bars
In recent years the wine bar has come back into favour, as British drinkers have become more discerning in their tastes. Changes in technology, too, have helped: wine can be dispensed by the glass from machines that inject inert gas into the bottle, keeping the wine fresh. This means that wine bars can serve a far wider range of wines by the glass, which has given rise to a more sophisticated culture of wine-sampling. Food served alongside the wine remains straightforward: sharing plates, cheeses, charcuterie, simple meals.
One of the new wave of wine bars is Salut in Manchester, which aims to offer a demystified, un-snobbish wine-drinking experience and serves an impressive 42 wines by the glass. Surroundings are bright and informal: marble-topped tables, wooden chairs, or high wooden tables with stools. Inevitably east London has seen a growing number of hipsterish wine bars, with new openings such as Sager + Wilde in Hackney, which took over a former pub to create a cool, informal interior with marble- and wooden-topped tables, wooden stools, and a long bar along which higher wooden stools are placed. The bar also has an outdoor area with benches and outdoor chairs. The vibe is neither fusty nor super-trendy.
Another recent development has seen wine shops setting aside an area for on-the-premises drinking, a kind of mini-wine bar. Laithwaite’s near London’s Borough Market has used its large premises to create its convivial The Arch wine bar within its store: low comfortable soft chairs and low tables, or high metal stools clustered around gigantic old wine barrels which are used as tables, creating a quiet and civilised retreat from the bustle of the surrounding area. Wine-tasting evenings are a regular event here with wine dispensed along a long counter with stools alongside.
Likewise, Nicolas, the well-known French chain, has a wine bar attached to its branch in London’s Canary Wharf, serving a range of wines at relatively low mark-ups and food ranging from sharing plates to three-course meals. Furniture is simple and unobtrusive: light wood, clean lines.
Drinking to the future
The future looks bright, then, for that venerable but flexible institution, the British wine bar. If you already run a wine bar, you might be thinking of refreshing your interiors so that they are in keeping with the times: today’s wine bars are brighter, cleaner-looking and, in style terms, cooler than the dark Victorian places of yesteryear. Remember that furniture does not have to match; a mix of chairs such as Trent Furniture’s Loopback side chair and its pyramid tables alongside low armchairs and low tables would create an eclectic look.
If you are looking to start up a wine bar, this bar furniture guide will give you an outline of what lies ahead and what you will need. Cheers!