When was the last time you heard the words “wine bar”? Perhaps it was last weekend when you were planning a date or it drifted into a discussion on which East London haunt to meet at before hitting a dimly lit, canalside, live music venue (rah). My point is, wine bars have taken over both the social and gastronomic landscape in the past year. Stable Wines is one of the newest and most notable additions to this group. 

There is a dish for every bottle, and there are 12 bottles for every dish. The food is good, the drinks are better, and the interiors create a landscape which manipulates the mind into wanting more

Mallory, Junior Food & Drink Editor

What sets it apart

But what’s the point? Aren’t there already so many? Why should the team behind the already notorious Goodbye Horses open such an “already-done” concept? A couple of things. Firstly, across the UK hospitality sector, consumer behaviour is very obviously shifting toward premium and quality drinks with longer stays, thus amplifying wine bars as social destinations rather than just a place to “grab a drink” (which, to me, will always win within the confines of the pub, not the wine bar). This year, diners and drinkers might be going out less frequently, but when they do go out, they stay longer and spend more. Secondly, while some wine bars might look the same, sound the same, use the same buzzwords, not all wine bars are created equally. Stable Wines is, above all else, created differently. 

Stable Wines is a carefully curated dungeon of timelessness, of intimate informality. 

@thehandbooknews

London’s coolest new wine bar? From the same team behind Goodbye Horses, Stable Wines is set in a wine cellar, low-lit and intimate, pouring great wine and serving one of my favourite chocolate mousses in London.  Definitely one to save.  📍Stable Wines, Dalston

♬ original sound – pinkhairedfreaak

At first glance, it’s a modern, if tiny, wine shop. From the street, you see a carefully curated selection of bottles framed by floor-to-ceiling windows, lit by a sculptural light fixture — an installation. It feels deliberate and contained.

What’s less obvious is what sits beneath it. Below this small corner store, a cellar runs deep under the pavements and shopfronts of its busy Islington block. Down here, the space opens out into something altogether different: a working kitchen no bigger than six by four, a single communal table held together by candlelight, and a long stone hall carved with arched pockets for those more secretive, who want to disappear into unlit stone.

Wine bottles line the walls, stack the tables and crowd the racks, hemming diners in on all sides. The effect is subtly disorientating, as though the cellar might never end, creating an illusion of bottomlessness in both time and drink. Stable Wines is a carefully curated dungeon of timelessness, of intimate informality. 

What we ordered

The experience is centred around wine, whether you get up and pick from the bottles displayed around the room, or articulate either pickiness or indecisiveness to your sommelier. I opted for the latter of the latter, trying an orange, then a white, then, as always, going home to red. 

As this all unfolds, there is, as there always should be, food. I started with a glass of Deix 2023, a hand-harvested orange wine from Catalonia, dark-fruited with a bitter finish that felt immediately on brand for my own palate. I drank as I scanned the menu of small plates, letting the wine settle first.

While some wine bars might look the same, sound the same, use the same buzzwords, not all wine bars are created equally. Stable Wines is, above all else, created differently. 

I drank a Domaine Goepp L’Ptit Blanc aged for 15 months in century-old casks in Sylvaner as raw beef came to my mouth via the vessel of potato soldiers. The potatoes, layered, flaky and buttery, holding a torch to an obviously well-sourced beef. Alongside it sat a radicchio salad, so strikingly bitter despite its contrastingly pastel aura, dressed with a clean vinaigrette that kept the table centred. The white wine held its line as a squash dish arrived, drenched in hazelnut sauce and finished with shavings of winter truffle, earthy and restrained.

Finally, I nursed a Simon Rouillard, Apres La Pluie, a consistently good and versatile bottle that palms elegance as I took a spoon to one of the more decadent, though light, chocolate mousse’s I’ve had in London. 

Verdict

At Stable Wines, the food exists to give the wine somewhere to land; in turn, the wine gives the food room to stretch and linger. There is a dish for every bottle, and there are 12 bottles for every dish. The food is good, the drinks are better, and the interiors create a landscape which manipulates the mind into wanting more, something all smart and competitive bars should harness.

Let the space inspire you and the staff serve you; there’s not much that could go wrong if you let go and give in, suspending into the unhurried pace which nests inside the concept of “the wine bar”. 

At Stable Wines, the food exists to give the wine somewhere to land; in turn, the wine gives the food room to stretch and linger.

Where: 344a Essex Rd, London N1 3PD
Website: www.stablewines.com

Bars & Clubs, Food & Drink, Restaurants, Reviews

Want to receive more great articles like this every day? Join our daily email now