From a rural grocery store to a dreamy terrace and a city-centre cellar, our wine expert picks some of her favourites...
Aoife Carrigy's favourite wine bars Daróg owner Zsolt Lukács. Photo: Ciarán MacChoncarraige 64 Wine La Cave Wine Bar MacCurtain Wine Cellar The Cellar at Fallon & Byrne After a slow and shy start, Ireland’s modern wine bar scene is having a heyday. What was once a conservative customer base strongly influenced by classic European culture is now brave and adventurous, looking for new experiences, new knowledge, new wine styles, regions, varietals and techniques.
Bolstered by the confidence of our food culture, many of today’s wine bars now offer a viable alternative to the pub as somewhere casual to share a drink and perhaps a small plate or two rather than being simply restaurants with a good by-the-glass selection. We look at some of the best across the country reflecting 25 years of evolution, with a few early outliers that are still going strong. Is this Ireland’s oldest wine bar? Manning’s has sold wine by the glass since the 1970s when Val Manning paired Irish Wine Geese wines with his curated Irish food offering.
Val’s niece, Laura Manning, and her husband, Andrew Heath, are proud to be “continuing the tradition of stocking a diverse range of wines that people are surprised to find in a rural grocery store cum wine bar”, with well-priced wines by the glass and €8 corkage for anything from their extensive retail selection. manningsemporium.ie La Cave Wine Bar Self-described as Dublin’s “oldest boutique wine bar and restaurant”, La Cave has been delivering unapologetically old-school wine bar kitsch in a time-travel cellar since 1987.
Expect 40 wines by the glass paired with classic French cooking in what is more restaurant than wine bar — plus a busy tasting schedule, for beginners through to industry pros. Kudos for longevity. lacavewinebar.
com Michelle and Erik Robson’s seminal wine bar opened in 1999, kickstarting modern Irish wine culture with their vision that good food (well-sourced, respectfully handled) can play support to fine wine, served with relaxed professionalism by the glass at the bar. Many of our best have worked here, including wine director Ian Brosnan. These trailblazers turned old guard remain relevant as ever, with lively tastings and a treasure-trove cellar.
(See also Ely Wine Store in Maynooth.) elywinebar.ie This west coast gem opened in 2001 above the flagship store for Ireland’s culture-defining cheesemongers.
Its offer remains, as Kevin Sheridan proudly puts it, “a space where people can sit and enjoy each other’s company with authentic, simple food and wine that come from our friends’ farms and vineyards”. Nab a windowside stool overlooking Galway’s market and order a glass of dry moscato, perhaps, and a mint-condition cheese board. sheridanscheesemongers.
com The Cellar at Fallon & Byrne Fallon & Byrne changed Irish gastro-retail in 2006, not least for the then-novel prospect of choosing any bottle from the retail shelves to enjoy onsite for minimal corkage. This summer, the Cellar’s 365-wine list is also available from its street-side pop-up terrace. Try its excellent fish stew with something special from Róisín Curley MW, Ireland’s pharmacist turned Burgundy’s rising star.
fallonandbyrne.com 64 Wine Gerard Maguire opened this Dublin southside mecca as a retail wine shop in 2006, but within five years, it began its wine bar evolution. Co-owner and manager Anthony Robineau since joined from Ely Wine Bar and helped establish its happy hybrid status: somewhere to sample one of the ever-changing wines by the glass paired with wine-friendly small plates from chef Ionut Apostol while perusing the list of 1,200 different wines, some very rare, all sustainably made.
64wine.com Beverley Mathews believes wine should be fun, and wine bars somewhere you can walk in and simply order a glass of wine. Since 2011, this riverside hub has drawn customers with a shared “open-mindedness, sense of adventure and willingness to try new wines”, either from its weekly by-glass recommendations or its 400-strong bottle list, with a particular leaning to natural wines.
The small-plate menu is overseen by co-owner Simone Kelly, and the wine event programme is especially inventive. latitude51.ie “We are not wine snobs, The Black Pig is not a fancy place.
” So say Siobhan Waldron and Gavin Ryan, who met while working in Dublin’s Ely Wine Bar, and have run their own Kinsale gem since 2013. Not fancy maybe, but certainly special, thanks to 300 excellent wines, with a third by the glass (all available to peruse on the website for advance planning purposes), plus a versatile menu of stellar local produce. Magic.
theblackpigwinebar.com A short stroll from the limestone-paved Flaggy Shore is this special spot described by co-owners Stefania and Andy Russell as “mainly an art gallery with a few surprises”, opened in 1999 but with a simple cafe and wine bar added in 2014. Customers can stop for an espresso or glass of vino sourced exclusively from Poggio al Gello, their family’s organic estate in Tuscany.
russellgallery.ie Opened in 2015 as an offshoot of Ox restaurant, co-owned by chef Stevie Toman and sommelier-manager Alain Kerloc’h, Ox Cave is a casual wine bar that aims to offer wine lovers a simple, pared-back space where they can feel at ease and discover delicious wines accompanied by small-plate samples of local charcuterie, Toman’s seasonal cooking or cheese and wine pairings. Kerloc’h’s front-of-house team are well-trained in his open-minded, customer-centric service style.
oxbelfast.com David Gallagher ran the wine cellar at Fallon & Byrne before opening Green Man Wines in 2015 as a wine shop where you might also sample a glass and maybe graze on some charcuterie while you were checking out the fine wine treasures on the shelves. This simple offer has evolved over the years into chef Dan Smith’s current small-plate menu (some hot, some cold, all delicious) and a drinks menu that spans from vermut to ‘steal of a sip’ coravin staff-pick pours, with sustainability a core guiding principle.
greenmanwines Co-owned since 2016 by Thomas Loisel with manager Thibaut Harang and wine importer Enrico Fantasia, Piglet is a special spot beloved of fans of rustic, honest fare and eclectic wines that include an impressive collection of old wine vintages and a tempting store of magnums. Sit at the bar downstairs for snacks and a glass with a ringside view of all the action, upstairs for the cosy intimacy of a bistro meal or outside for dreamy terrace action. pigletwinebar.
ie Co-owner Brian O’Caoimh ignored the naysayers who swore in 2018 that Ireland wasn’t ready for a wine bar with a few stools and standing room. Happily, it works well for wine lovers with 45 minutes to kill or on a quick catch-up, a first date or a shopping break, and, on sunny days, happy punters spill onto the pedestrianised, festive street. Expect natty wines by the glass rotating from a compact retail selection, paired with cheese boards and magnificent toasties.
loosecanon.ie Occupying an unlikely corner of a car park entrance since 2019, with champion wines on tap and wine-led cocktails paired with punchy small plates in a party atmosphere, Amy Austin is serial restaurateur (777, Butcher Grill, Dillingers) John Farrell’s sassy contribution to Ireland’s wine bar culture. amyaustin.
ie Opened in 2019 and reviving the rustic French flair of his father, Gerard, who opened La Petite France Castlebar in the 1970s, chef-owner Alain Morice’s intimate deli-cafe-wine bar is an essential visit — for a taste of signature pate en croute as much as an exploration of his quirky wine list that includes a flight of wines from Mayo’s own MW winemaker, Róisín Curley. Go early to grab a daytime table, sunny seat or counter stool — or see Instagram for pop-up evening collaborations with local DJs or brewers. @savoir_fare Since 2019, Frank’s has helped elevate this student mecca street into an eclectic destination.
The small, walk-in-friendly wine room and tiny kitchen is run for owner Darren Free (of sister Delahunt) by the dynamic partnership of sommelier Katie Seward (ex-Note, Forest & Marcy, Neighbourhood Wine) and chef David Bradshaw (ex-Clanbrassil House, Potager). Grab a stool at the central long table and let Seward suggest what to eat and drink — and maybe what to take home from the wine shelves too. @franksdublin Bakery by morning, brunch spot by afternoon, restaurant and wine bar by night, with an emphasis on natural, biodynamic and organic wines — Enda McEvoy and Sinead Meacle’s multifunctional space has been wooing fans and working this rustic room since 2020.
You’re welcome for just a glass of wine, if you can resist the seasonal, produce-driven dishes, or settle in for a full meal and a deep dive into the eclectic wine list. eangalway.com MacCurtain Wine Cellar Co-owners Seán Gargano and Trudy Ahern swapped Dublin for Cork to open MacCurtain Wine Cellar in 2022 as “a shop you can drink in”, bringing decades of collective industry experience and a great sense of fun.
Proudly selling “everything from new-style natural to big-name classics, as long as the farming is correct”, they have built a solid following for fine wine and a fan base for their house pour, the aromatic Meinklang Mulatschak orange wine, with or without tasty small plates. maccurtainwine.ie Sommelier-chef couple and long-time business partners Morgan VanderKamer and Stephen McArdle (previously of Dublin’s Stanley’s and Kilkenny’s Barrows Keep) opened Union in 2022 as a restaurant and wine bar that showcases their combined expertise.
Canadian-born VanderKamer, who is president of the Irish Guild of Sommeliers, has always brought imagination and flair to her wine offer, and is having fun exploring the crossover between the worlds of wine and cocktails. unionbar.ie Opened in 2022 as a sister vineria to chef-owner Roberto Mungo’s Grano restaurant next door, with Italian-sourced wines that are mostly farmed by small organic producers using old techniques.
Mungo is from Calabria and so are most of his wines, and many of the dishes on his tapas-style menu, such as polpette alla nduja (spicy meatballs with tomato sauce and smoked ricotta from Calabria). afianco.ie Daróg owner Zsolt Lukács.
Photo: Ciarán MacChoncarraige Daróg replaced Tartare wine bar, previously owned by JP McMahon of the Michelin-starred Aniar. Co-owned since 2023 by JP’s sister Edel McMahon-Lukács and her husband Zsolt Lukács (Aniar’s understated sommelier for 12 years), with talented chef Attila Galambos’s seasonal menu of exquisite small plates complementing an evolving wine list championing lesser-known regions and sustainable practices with weekly blackboard specials, monthly regional focuses, over 30 wines by the glass — and walk-in seats at the bar. darogwinebar.
com Simon Prim opened his second-hand book shop in 2014, complete with a little coffee bar, a piano and various board games, supplementing the income by working at The Black Pig wine bar. By 2023, he had developed the book shop as a little night-time music venue, and decided to bring that wine bar magic into the shop, which transforms into a bar from 5pm with a focused wine list that indulges Simon’s passion for sherry. @primsbookshop Before Marc and Conor Bereen reopened their beloved Coppinger restaurant this summer, they brought life and soul back to the lane by opening Row Wines in 2023 — a wine, food and vinyl bar with DJs like Billy Scurry on the decks (formerly on the pans in Coppinger), natural wines and spritzers at the bar and a small plate and snack menu from executive chef Dan Hannigan’s kitchen team.
bereenbrothers.com/row From the couple behind Fish Shop in Dublin 7 and Beach House in Tramore, Bar Pez is Peter Hogan and Jumoke Akintola Hogan’s distillation of what they love in Spanish wine bars. Opened in 2023, Irish seafood remains the food focus, while the wine list is organised into the terroir-defined categories of oceans, rivers, mountains, hills and plains.
barpez.ie Chef-owner Brid Torrades has never stopped evolving her wonderful riverside cafe in the heart of Sligo town, from its always imaginative sea, shore and land-inspired menu through to the weekly live music Ósta Sessions. Her latest incarnation is a brand new pop-up tapas and wine bar in the space next door that currently opens early evenings from Thursday to Sunday.
osta.ie Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel Stay up to date with all the latest news.
