The Grape Reset
New natural wine openings, from Burgundy to Brooklyn.
One of the richest waves of wine-bar openings in years: a cave à manger in Nuits-Saint-Georges, a blind-tasting school in Nantes, Daniel Humm's long-awaited West Village debut, a 1,200-bottle temple in Midtown — and a Georgian wine invasion of Soho.
The season of the wine-first room.
Autumn 2026 has delivered an unusually deep bench of openings where the bottle leads and the kitchen follows. In Burgundy, a new cave à manger pours grower bottles beside charcuterie in the heart of Nuits-Saint-Georges. In Nantes, a tasting school doubles as a 500-reference wine bar. New York counters with spectacle: a nearly 80-page list from Daniel Humm, and a midtown room pouring Mouton 2009 by the glass.
London's wave runs Georgian — Aba-Ra brings qvevri amber wines and a sommelier flown in from Tbilisi to Wardour Street — while Portugal, Spain and the Loire keep fuelling the natural-wine map from Soho to Shepherd's Bush.
This round-up tracks twenty venues across ten cities, filtered to those with a genuine wine programme: lists built to stand up to the food, cellars that double as private dining rooms, and bottles poured with intent.
Twenty rooms, ten cities.
Three rooms worth the trip.
Bar Chimera
Midtown, Manhattan
Inside Philip Johnson's 550 Madison atrium, a 60-foot, three-bar spectacle: wine bar, liquid-nitrogen martini bar, whiskey library. Master sommelier Mia Van de Water's list runs from Stolpman sauvignon blanc to a Dujac Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru and Mouton-Rothschild 2009 by the glass — plus vintage Madeira back to 1835.
Humm
West Village, Manhattan
Daniel Humm's first solo US project: modern American, wood-fired, no red meat — roast chicken for two with brioche stuffing, a caviar bagel, and a roving martini cart. Wine director Michael Duffy's list digs deep on Champagne, Burgundy, Jura and the Loire, with left-field picks like Slovak Riesling and a Château Musar vertical.
Bar Blondie
Queen's Park, London
The most serious wine programme of London's new wave. Sommelier Alexandra Price organises ~200 bottles into four "muse" sections — Joan Didion, Ray Eames, Sergio Leone, and an "emerging actor" for low-intervention up-and-comers — from £45 to a 2012 Cheval Blanc at £910, inside Spaghetti Western interiors.
Drink living wine.
Qvevri — Vermut — Port
The cellar is the room.
Notes from the autumn list — clay vessels, taps and tasting schools
