This wine club wants to be different from all the other wine clubs

Dalston Wine Club isn’t like other wine clubs. 

Rather than knocking back dusty bottles of Beaujolais in a Home Counties semi, these guys hold cute little gatherings at Hackney wine bar Silver Lining – or on London Fields itself! – and let you snack on a bar menu of nice French dishes while you sup.

There will be no arguing with your uncle Ian about tannins here, no thank you. Instead there will be nice chats and respectful glugging. Founded by Hannah Crosbie last year, Dalston Wine Club is all about getting amazing bottles to a new generation of wine drinkers.

Crosbie spent lockdown hosting online tastings and now the real thing is back. Following on from June’s sold-out event, which put a spotlight on Bethnal Green’s Renegade Urban Winery, Dalston Wine Club’s next outing at Silver Lining will be a Pét-Nat party, with a flight of four sparkling natural wines for attendees to sip on during the evening of July 29.

We have no doubt that they’ll tell you much more on the night, but here’s a quick primer: pétillant-naturel is a naturally sparkling wine made using ancient methods. It’s cloudy and comes with a beer-style crown cap, is quite delish and has a low-ish ABV. We like it a lot, thanks for asking. 

Silver Lining’s GM, Sarah Maddox will co-host the event. Silver Lining is the UK’s first dedicated orange wine bar and shop, with over 50 varieties of orange wine. You don’t need us to tell you that that’s a lot of orange wine. 

'I wish Dalston Wine Club had existed when I first started learning about wine.' says Crosbie. 'As anyone who works in wine knows, the only way to really get an understanding of wine is to taste, taste, taste. But unless you’re lucky enough to attend trade tastings or can afford to open several bottles of wine at one time at home, there just aren’t opportunities to taste a lot of different wines at the same time if you’re not in the very exclusive industry. That’s where Dalston Wine Club comes in.'

Tickets to the event cost £40 and include four glasses of plonk. Get them at hannahcrosbie.com on July 15. Happy drinking. 

Silver Lining, 13 Morning Lane, E9 6ND.

Here are some other good places to drink wine in London.

A beginner’s guide to natural wine, courtesy of Time Out London.