12 great wine bars and wine restaurants in Edinburgh 2024
It wasn’t so long ago that drinking in Edinburgh was a pretty perfunctory affair. The dingy, tobacco-stained pubs were intimidatingly male, with little on offer other than nips of Scotch or pints of Heavy. Anyone daring to ask for a glass of Merlot or Malbec would be taking their life into their hands. Today, Edinburgh’s dining and drinking scene has undergone a transformation and is now one of the most vibrant places to eat and drink in the UK. This revolution has been largely driven by young chefs and sommeliers opening up their own venues with a firm focus on the provenance of their offer, exploiting Scotland’s natural larder to the full, taking advantage of the country’s peerless game, seafood and fresh produce, and creating carefully curated wine lists to match.
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Phone: +44 0131 538 1815
Address: 9 Randolph Place, Edinburgh
Whether you’re after a tipple from the Loire, Burgundy or Bordeaux, Le Di Vin, one of Edinburgh’s best French wine bars has a great selection of over 100 well-priced bottles that won’t break the bank. But what’s really impressive about this place, which retains many of the period features from its former incarnation as a Polish church, is its carefully-selected range of New World wines, with a good number on offer by the glass. Le Di Vin also offers wine flights, and plays host to various wine tasting events throughout the year. On the food front, a tempting array of dishes to soak up the wine...
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Phone: +44 0131 225 8674
Address: 13 Hope Street, Edinburgh
Still packing them in after all these years, this Edinburgh stalwart in the city’s well-heeled West End acts as a magnet for young professionals letting off steam after a hard day in the office. Situated in a former wine cellar dating back over 250 years, its vaulted, brick ceilinged mini-caves make the ideal intimate space to share a bottle with friends. Originally firmly French in origin, the 80-strong wine selection - of which around 35 are offered by the glass - has expanded its horizons in recent years to embrace representations from the New World along with other European countries. The...
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Phone: +44 0131 556 6066
Address: 19 Elm Row, Edinburgh
Something of an Edinburgh institution, Valvona & Crolla which first opened its doors back in 1934 is Scotland’s oldest wine merchant and holds a Royal Warrant from the late Queen. Nowadays, the Contini family who run this Italian outpost in the Scottish capital oversee a burgeoning business that incorporates the original deli in Elm Walk, which is packed to the rafters with mountains of Italian gastronomic goodies, complete with a cafe restaurant hidden away at the back, plus several other restaurants dotted around the city centre. What they all have in common, however, is a passion for food a...
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Phone: +44 07468 493350
Address: 120 Dundas Street, Edinburgh
This family-run wine cafe, bar and restaurant situated at the bottom of Dundas Street in Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town, makes the perfect pit stop for a glass - or two - of something delicious after a hard day’s sight-seeing or shopping. With its sleek, streamlined interior, it’s more reminiscent of a cool art gallery than an Edinburgh bar, but all the better for it. One-20 offers an extensive, largely Italian list, with a few wines from classic French regions, as well as a smattering from Slovenia, Spain and Chile. It prides itself on including a range of independent producers, many of whom y...
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Phone: +44 0131 225 1441
Address: 19 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh
Ecco Vino in Edinburgh’s atmospheric mediaeval Old Town a mere stone’s throw from the Castle is a classy Italian enoteca offering a wide range of seafood, antipasti, and pasta. But it’s the comprehensive, carefully selected wine list which is the big draw here, making it a favourite amongst visiting winemakers, as well as with locals and tourists alike. The wine list is divided by styles rather than countries or regions, with some big hitters offered at surprisingly affordable prices, and a wide range available by the glass. Make sure to ask about the wine of the month, as well as the daily fo...
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Phone: +44 0131 226 2211
Address: 34 Thistle Street North West Lane, Edinburgh
The Auld Alliance, the centuries’ old bond between France and Scotland, is alive and well at this romantic brasserie, tucked away in a little cobbled street just off Thistle Street. The perfect place for an illicit rendezvous, Cafe St Honore complete with starched linen tablecloths, heavy silver cutlery and weighty glassware is warm, welcoming and Gallic through and through, serving up all the classic French bistro favourites that keeps customers coming back for more. The wine list is also unashamedly Francophile - bien sûr - with nothing to surprise the horses. But it’s quality not quantity t...
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Phone: +44 0131 225 1770
Address: 5 Merchant Street, Edinburgh
Situated in the historic Old Town, Divino Enoteca is a third-generation Italian family-run business, which opened its doors in 2010. The food is traditional Italian ‘fine dining’, while the vibrant décor, jazzy plates and white tablecloths make it out as more ‘ristorante’ than rustic trattoria. And with around 150 bottles on the list, it’s clear they are enthusiastic about the subject. An enomatic machine allows for 32 choices by the glass, including 25ml taster glasses. The bulk of the list is Italian, organised by style over region, with prices from £30-100. The reds also have a ‘Fine’ s...
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Phone: +44 0131 285 8003
Address: 34 Northumberland Street, Edinburgh
This wine shop and cellar bar, now in its new home below Kweilin Cantonese Chinese restaurant in the city centre’s New Town, Good Brothers offers the gamut of wines from stately Bordeaux and Burgundy to rustic Italian and Spanish and plenty of bottles from ‘half-crazed rural vignerons with massive moustaches’ (their words not ours, but basically, all wine is welcome - as long as it’s good). Thursdays are a particularly good day to pop in as they pull out a couple of special (and sometimes very old) bottles from the cellar to taste by the glass at cost price.
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Phone: +44 0131 334 6430
Address: 113D Saint John's Road, Edinburgh
On the busy St John's Road to the west of the city, an unexpectedly elegant wooden facade appears with bottles in the window. Little Rascal attracts both locals and tourists (it’s conveniently on the way to the airport) who flock to its laid-back atmosphere. Natural wine dominates the short and ever- evolving list, while there’s often something new and open to try, with staff happily on hand to tell the stories behind the wine and the regions. The bar is run by Rory Sutherland, who co-founded Good Brothers in Stockbridge in 2016, now housed in new premises in the New Town. The interior is mo...
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Phone: +44 0131 557 0005
Address: 1 Haddington Place, Edinburgh
Sustainable Wine List of the Year UK, presented by Premium Estates of Austria 2024
Spry is a wine bar and shop with a basement cafe, located on the east side of town and a short walk from hip Leith. The spacious, modern room has the wine selection displayed on shelves for you to easily peruse, with natural wines being the main focus. Quality, however, is always to the fore, and Spry offers a classy selection from small independent producers made with care for both people and planet. Matt Jackson, who owns Spry with his wife Marzena, does his utmost to only buy from good people, “something that has become somewhat of an unexpected factor while building the wine list,” he s...
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Phone: 0131 629 6280
Address: 26 Hamilton Place, Edinburgh
Smith & Gertude is a relaxed walk-in wine bar and shop, with over 100 international bottles to drink in. If you don’t want to choose just one bottle, go for a glass or opt for a wine and cheese flight, which rotate every month. Every Friday they pop on a magnum or bigger of something extra special or delve into their little black book of special treats. The menu is wonderfully cheese-centric - cheese boards, grilled cheese sandwiches and burrata plates - plus charcuterie and a few veggie snacks. Now with two venues, this one, the original in Stockbridge (in town) and the recently opened Portob...
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Phone: +44 0131 220 1794
Address: 1 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh
A restaurant and bakery in the city centre, The Palmerston is open from 9am for coffee and pastries, then onto lunch and dinner. Working closely with local farmers, growers and fishermen, the hearty, wine-friendly European menu changes daily according to whatever is in season. The wine list is where things get especially interesting, making this one of the top lists in the UK for a restaurant of this size and style. But with co-owner and FOH wino James Snowdon boasting Hotel du Vin, Bubbledogs and the Harwood Arms on his CV it’s hardly a surprise. By the glass offerings provide superb value...
