Where To Drink Chilled Red Wine in London This Summer

There’s always joy to be found in a glass of quality chilled red wine – and London drinkers are cottoning on, with Ocado recently recording a 1020 per cent increase year-on-year in people searching for “chilled red wine”. Where we may have been all about orange the last few years, 2026 heralds the summer of the chilled red.

While not all rouge benefits from the cold shoulder, juicier styles such as gamay, pinot noir, frappato, zweigelt, mencía, cinsault, young grenache and more can come alive after a stint in the fridge – perfect for heatwaves and long summer nights.

A slight chill – ideally between 10°C and 14°C – can sharpen acidity, tone down an abrasive alcoholic mouthfeel, soften jammy sweetness and make fruit flavours flourish. The result? a brighter, fresher, more thirst-quenching pour.

But not all chilled reds are created equal. Here are the best bars in London pouring chilled reds – those backed up the knowledge, skill and discernment to know which wines will thrive with a little chill.

Wine importers Tom Beattie and Francis Roberts have committed themselves to sourcing some of the world’s most delicious low-intervention wines and serving them at their Newington Green neo-bistro Cadet. The pair’s dynamic list of quaffable pours is constantly changing, but they regularly have cool glasses by natural wine producers such as Le Thio Noots, Julie and Toby Bainbridge and Domaine Fond Cypres. Join fellow patrons enjoying glasses in spilling out onto the pavement during warmer months or fighting over the last bite of pate en croute inside at just about any time.

Since opening in February, Fabio Forin and Goncalo Albuquerque’s cosy, candlelit Italian and Portuguese wine bar and deli has become a stalwart for south-east Londoners on the hunt for a chilled red. Set in a compact railway arch in Deptford Market Yard, the bar specialises in lesser-known bottles by producers with a conscience. Its go-to by the glass at the time of writing? Folias de Baco Uivo Renegado vinhas velhas from the Douro Valley, Portugal – a light, fruity, drinkable blend of more than 20 indigenous grape varieties from old characterful vines.

It’s beloved for its burger and good-times pub grub, but it’s worth noting that you can and should just pop into Ed McIlroy’s Finsbury Park boozer The Plimsoll for a drink. It boasts an impressive range of carefully selected chilled reds, from Domaine Mosse’s Bangarang Rouge 2024, a juicy Loire packed with crunchy red berries and white pepper spice, to Emmanuel Haget’s Palabres 2024, a peppery pineau d’aunis brimming with bright red fruit and a refreshing edge. Note: they’re not bad with the chef’s cult-favourite beef burger, either.

De Beauvoir’s Stable Wines is the quintessential cave-like wine bar made modern. All sultry nooks and flickering candlelight, the zero-zero vino (that means bottles that have nothing added and nothing taken away) specialist’s wine list is in constant rotation thanks to many thirsty fans. Nevertheless, visitors might find chilled-down creations such as Bruno Rochard’s 2024 Le P’tit Clou cabernet franc care of the Loire; Le Mazel’s 2024 Briand grenache from Ardèche, France; and Belloca Vini’s 2024 Guaivo, starring a range of grapes from the Valpolicella region, Italy. Peckish? Try the melted Mont D’or with crusty French baguette.

Michael Sager is one of the cohort responsible for drumming up London’s initial interest in low-intervention wine – so, needless to say, his bijou Victoria Park hobbit hole Bruno is a brilliant place to savour it. Chilled reds might include a Dote’s Ok Ok, a 2020 syrah from Tuscany; Sophie Evans’s Pinot Pinot, a 2023 pinot noir and pinot gris blend from Kent; and Emmanuel Haget’s Loustic, a 2024 pineau d’aunis and cabernet franc mix from France’s Loire.

If you want to learn a lot about how, why and when to drink chilled red, stop by The Drapers in Islington and hope that publican Nick Gibson is behind the bar. He keeps half of his red wine selection at a cool 12°C, and you’ll find all the classics – beaujolais, burgundy pinot, light grenache and cabernet franc – alongside plenty of lesser-known gems. Ask him about the Tissot Singulier Trousseau from Jura, Fedellos do Couto’s Bastarda from Galicia and Foradori’s Lezer, starring teroldego grapes.

Make haste to Queen’s Park to be among the first to enjoy the greatness of Bar Blondie – a new wine bar from one of the city’s most celebrated sommeliers, Alexandra Price, and Elliot Milne, founder of Aussie restaurant Milk Beach. There are multiple chilled reds to choose from on the 200-strong list, and sampling a range of the stellar by-the-glass options is encouraged. At the moment, there are wines of the lesser-known agiorgitiko grapes from the Peloponnese in Greece, an old-vine blend of northern Spanish grapes from Bodegas Albamar, and a high-altitude nebbiolo from iconic producer Arpepe.

Sessions Arts Club is loved for its magical interiors – but did you know that it has a sunny terrace bar, too? Head to the Farringdon restaurant’s rooftop to sample some of sommelier Sophie Liverman’s favourite chilled reds, which include Christophe Abbet’s Les Foretes 2021, a Swiss gamay and pinot noir blend, and LA River Wine Company’s 2020 Heart of Sand – a herby, energetic grenache hailing from California.

Finding a stylish place to swing by for a glass of low-intervention wine in Soho can prove tricky, so Bar Crispin on Kingly Street is a good one to keep up your sleeve. Snag a stainless-steel stool on the terrace to split a bottle of Pearl Mountain’s 2020 Flight of the Drongo from South Africa, which the team describes as “muscle and mischief all rolled into one, a bit like the Anthony Joshua of chillable reds”. Need we say more?

Tucked above Wildflowers in Newson’s Yard, Pimlico, Bar Flor by Wildflowers’s chef Aaron Potter and his partner, the interior stylist Laura Hart, mostly revolves around all things Spanish – from vermouths and Basque ciders to pintxos and tapas inspired by the founders’ favourite parts of Spain. At the moment, its current go-to is a chilled red by Éric Texier’s Chat Fou from the Rhône Valley in France – a blend of grenache and cinsault grapes mixed with a splash of white grapes like clairette. Enjoy while taking in the grand ethereal floral mural by artist Jo Fulker.

Named after the French slang for “a glass”, Godet in Islington has become best known for supposedly being London’s only “wine pub”. Its weekly-changing wine list predominantly focuses on pours from France. A 2025 blend of mondeuse noire, gamay and pinot noir grapes called Silice Rouge by Maison des Ardoisieres is regularly available chilled by the glass. Stick around for quirky, energetic plates of modern Chinese food from Ling Ling’s, the restaurant in-residence until October.