Natural wines, old school vinyl, and Eastern European influences: Inside Notting Hill’s newest wine bar

Everything from your Pinterest board brought to life

Hermione Blandford's avatar
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an image of the interiors at Sova, showing the counter top bar seats, and the listening bar tables
(Image credit: Rebecca Hope via Sova)

Say the words “wine bar” aloud in the middle of an affluent or trendy area of London, and I guarantee you some kind of trend-curated twenty-something will appear, like a Gen Z Beetlejuice. In spite - or perhaps because of - this, London has a brand new spot, combining both of the most beloved bars: a listening bar, and a wine bar.

Sova is the newest spot opening up just moments from Portobello Road, specialising in wines from Eastern and Central Europe. Throwing open its doors on 8th April, Sova – meaning owl in Slavic languages – focuses on low-intervention and skin-contact wines, showcasing bottles from lesser explored regions.

an image of five of the bottles sold by the glass at sova

(Image credit: Rebecca Hope Photography)

The music is equally looking to blend tradition, combining electronic and contemporary sounds on vinyl-led selections, with live DJ sets popping up across the week. The bar’s vinyl collection has been sourced and partially curated with help from the team at Rough Trade, an independent record store.

On the menu is a host of unfussy, sharing-style plates, all with a subtle Slavic influence in keeping with the bar’s core theme. Starters include slow-roasted peppers and Beef tartare, with mains offering up honey-roasted baby chicken, Crispy sea bass with fennel and grapefruit, and miso-glazed duck.

It would be a waste to be right next to Portobello Market without maxing out your credit card on fresh, local, and seasonal produce, so it’s not surprising that the chefs at Sova will be sourcing a lot of the ingredients from the local neighbourhood, with bread from the Notting Hill Bakery.

an image of the interiors of Sova showing three small round tables and the banquette

(Image credit: Rebecca Hope Photography)

Slightly unsurprisingly, the wine list is where the bar shines, with the whole list curated by a consultant sommelier, creating a unique but crowd-pleasing selection of sparkling wines (including a Ukrainian-style Brut), orange wines, Serbian Pinot Grigios, Slovenian Malvasia, Hungarian Rieslings, and everything in between – meaning there are plenty of non-alcoholic options too.

Seating 40 guests, it's a Goldilocks of bars, still fairly intimate but not chef-tasting-table level, where you're making unexpected eye contact with the other six strangers you're seated with.

You can find Sova at 9 Blenheim Crescent, London W11 2EE, open Wednesday-Sunday.

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Hermione Blandford
Hermione Blandford
Content Editor

Hermione Blandford is the Content Editor for Shortlist’s social media which means you can usually find her scrolling through Instagram and calling it work, or stopping random people in the street and accosting them with a mini mic. She has previously worked in food and drink PR for brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Gordon's, The Singleton, Lagavulin and Don Julio which means she is a self confessed expert in spicy margaritas and pints, regularly popping into the pub in the name of research.

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