Shrine to the Vine (Lamb's Conduit Street)
The company behind this counter writes the wine lists at Brat and Ikoyi, working as what Dan Keeling calls
kind of outsourced head sommeliers(Hot Dinners).
Why go
Keeling Andrew & Co is Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew, who also publish Noble Rot magazine and run the Noble Rot wine bars. They opened this shop over the weekend of 31 July 2021, on Lamb's Conduit Street by the first Noble Rot, in the unit Bikefix used to have. To do the restaurant programmes they brought in Terry Kandylis, previously of the Fat Duck and The Ledbury.
The shelf is the argument. Roulot Auxey-Duresses premier cru, Jules Desjourneys Pouilly-Fuissé premier cru in magnum, a Rousset-Martin savagnin from the Jura: those are allocations a grower hands to a buyer they know rather than stock anyone can order. On the same wall, a Samos Muscat at nineteen pounds and a Samos vin doux at sixteen fifty.
Keeling is explicit about who both ends are for: that could be an 80-year-old claret lover or 25-year-old hipster into natural wine. The common thing that binds them is an openmindedness to want to try new wines. It's about attitude not age.
His own description of the range runs old clarets, mature Burgundies, 100-year-old Madeiras, but also young domaines, a lot of the better natural wines
1.
The learning side has grown since. There is a Shrine to the Vine wine school, a monthly tasting listed for this branch specifically, and a club that sends three bottles a month. In 2021 the tastings had to happen upstairs at Noble Rot Soho.
Three shops now carry the name, and this is the original.
Order this / avoid
- Order: something from Jules Desjourneys if you are spending, since they carry the Pouilly-Fuissé premier crus in magnum. A Roulot for the same reason. The Rousset-Martin savagnin if oxidative Jura is an argument you enjoy. At the other end, the Greek Muscat, chosen by the same people. The current Noble Rot, which they publish.
- Avoid: Sunday, when this branch shuts and the other two do not. Turning up before noon on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
What locals & experts say
- Dan Keeling, co-founder, to Hot Dinners in August 2021, on where the shop came from:
The shop came about because we were in lockdown and sending out lots of Noble Rot boxes, but we just hadn't been set up to supply consumers, just restaurants and shops.
And on choosing the street:We looked at other locations, but this is near our first restaurant and Lamb's Conduit is a lovely street. We could see that there could be good synergy between the two.
1 - Chiara Wilkinson, Time Out London, 6 August 2021: the shop stocks
a diverse range of bottles, from under-the-radar natural cuvées and leftfield options to mature classics from France, Italy, Spain and everywhere else
, behinda quirky graphic-design exterior by Jose Miguel Mendez, the same artist who illustrated the label of Noble Rot's popular house wine, Chin Chin.
2 - The Infatuation put it on its London file and admitted it had not gone:
We haven't been here yet, but want you to know this spot exists.
That is honest, and it is the closest thing to a review anyone has published.4 - No independent verdict exists: no review, and no chef or sommelier pick. What carries this entry is the buying, which can be checked shelf by shelf, and the entry says so rather than dressing it up.
Good to know
- Where: 48 Lamb's Conduit Street, WC1N 3LH, with the first Noble Rot at number 51. Russell Square and Holborn are both close.
- Timing: Monday to Wednesday noon to 8pm, Thursday to Saturday 11am to 8pm, closed Sunday. This is the only one of the three shops that shuts on a Sunday.
- The programme: a wine school, a monthly tasting listed for this branch, and a three-bottle-a-month club. They also buy wine back through a Sell Your Wine service.
- Sites: three. This one at 48 Lamb's Conduit Street is the original. The second is 27 Broadway Market E8 4PH and the third is 163 Stoke Newington Church Street N16 0UL, and both of those open on Sundays. Each has its own phone number and email.
- Hygiene: no Food Standards Agency registration at this address, which is what a shop selling sealed bottles normally looks like. The Broadway Market shop is separately registered as awaiting inspection, and that belongs to that address.5
- A listing to distrust: the Infatuation gives the postcode as WC1N 3LL and the hours as 10am to 8pm Monday to Saturday. The venue, Time Out and Hot Dinners all say WC1N 3LH, and the venue's own hours are above.
Verdict
should-visit — Worth the detour if you buy wine seriously, and the reason is who is doing the buying. Keeling Andrew & Co writes the wine programmes for Brat and Ikoyi, working as what Dan Keeling calls outsourced head sommeliers, and hired Terry Kandylis out of the Fat Duck and The Ledbury to help do it. This shop is that company selling to the public, on Lamb's Conduit Street by the first Noble Rot, in the old Bikefix unit. The shelf proves the relationships: Roulot Auxey-Duresses premier cru, Jules Desjourneys Pouilly-Fuisse in magnum, a Rousset-Martin savagnin from the Jura, which are allocations a grower gives to a buyer they know. On the same wall sits a nineteen-pound Samos Muscat, and Keeling is explicit that both customers are the point: an eighty-year-old claret lover and a twenty-five-year-old on natural wine, and the binding thing is openmindedness rather than age. There is a wine school, a monthly tasting for this branch, and a three-bottle club. Depth is the craft here rather than rotation, so the argument is the range and the names on it. It stops at should-visit for one honest reason: nobody has reviewed it. The Infatuation wrote it up and said in the same paragraph that it had not been, and no other independent verdict exists. The rung rests on what can be verified about the buying, which is a lot, and on nobody's palate.