Where to drink incredible wine at Paddington Central

The best bars and restaurants by the glass and bottle

Looking for the best places to drink wine with delicious food to match? Paddington Central by Regent’s Canal is the perfect place to book this autumn with a selection of acclaimed restaurants that place an emphasis on well-researched and interesting wines whatever your taste and budget. Inspired, we’ve created a guide to the best bars and restaurants with indoor and outdoor dining and what to order by the glass.
 

A huge selection at Vagabond Wines

Vagabond Wines have an incredible 100 different wines available for you to try (each wine has detailed tasting notes so your palate is in the very best of hands) – all of them available by the glass. Excitingly, they also have their own urban winery where they create their own minimal intervention wines: delicious and each with their own sense of place.

Orange: The Hermit Ram is a sauvignon blanc from New Zealand that’s been destemmed and fermented on skins for over a month to add lemongrass, miso and bitter elements in addition to the tropical fruit flavours you’d expect from a sauvignon blanc.

White: It’s warm, you’re outside and you want a crisp, easy-to-drink crowd pleaser. Vinho verde is a winner. Maria Bonita Loureiro’s Lua Cheia is light and zippy – and its slightly lower ABV may be something you’re grateful for the next day.

Red: Try Vagabonds’ very own cinsault: blood orange and freshly squeezed redcurrant juice with a green peppercorn and cranberry tang in a vivid and vivacious styled palate. Delightful!

Artisan wines at London Shell Co

A restaurant-barge known for their seasonal British food, London Shell Co update their wine list as often as they update their menus (frequently). Almost all of their wines are available by the glass – so you can explore your way through the list then settle down with whatever bottle takes your fancy – most of them are from small artisanal producers.

Sparkling: Forget everything you think you might know about Lambrusco; start off with the Lambrusco di Sorbara Radice Paltrinieri. Bubbly, light, refreshing and a little pink.

White: Envinate’s Taganan Blanco (from Tenerife in the Canary islands) is a dream match for most fish dishes which the London Shell Co is famed for. 

Red: Red wine with fish? Course you can. Oily fish in particular pairs well with red wine and Pittnauer’s Blaufränkisch is a delicious choice.

The perfect matches on The Grand Duchess

The Grand Duchess’s wine list is quite a wonderful thing as it’s a) excellent and b) categorised by fish. So if you want turbot, they’ll guide you towards 12 delicious whites and if you fancy a pint of prawns, they’ll point you in the direction of 11 well-curated reds. You can, of course, still choose whatever you like, but it’s all so well thought out, you’d be doing yourself a disservice. They also serve wines by the glass, which we’ll focus on here.

Sparkling: The Grand Duchess has teamed up with Hampshire’s Hattingley Valley winery to create… The Grand Duchess, a sparkling blend of pinot gris and bacchus.

White: If you’ve not tasted an English white lately, you might find yourself very pleasantly surprised. Try the ortega from Westwell Wines in Kent and enjoy its honeysuckle, grapefruit and peach aromas.

Red: Just two to choose from by the glass here – a tempranillo from La Mancha (bramble fruits, a touch of vanilla) or a Bourgogne rouge from Domaine Charles Audoin (red fruits, earthy notes) – and you can’t go wrong with either.

Classics at Pearl Liang

Pearl Liang has a wine list you can spend quite some time poring over and includes a lovely looking selection of well-aged bordeaux if you’ve some money burning a hole in your pocket.

Sparkling: There are five classics from Champagne available by the bottle but if you just want a glass the choice is limited to Castelnau’s brut reserve (though that’s no real hardship: it’s a toasty, lemony delight).

White: Pinot gris is a great match for many Chinese food styles as the high acidity and fruit copes well with sweet, sour and salty flavours as well as chilli. Pearl Liang’s pinot gris is from Orgegon, which is producing some of the most exciting US wines at the moment.

Red: If you’re going for anything duck-based, pinot noir and zinfandel are classic matches; pinot noir (from Argentina) is available by the glass while zinfandel (from California) is available by the bottle.