A different kind of wine club

When we left our last lockdown in the UK, a young generation of drinkers was released into the world with a fascination for wine. What resulted was a plethora of community events and pop-ups specifically designed for these nascent wine-drinkers to discover more about their new interest while relearning how to make conversation with people. They weren’t too keen on traditional wine-tasting venues, preferring to attend events in spaces they recognised. I should know: I used to host them.

But as tastes change and needs expand, a new kind of wine club is picking up steam. One where easy-listening jazz is traded for Italo disco. Where the order of service reads more like a festival lineup. Where waiting online to snag a ticket can feel like waiting for a drop from a hypey fashion brand. Only it’s not the Supreme x Aphex Twin hoodie you’re trying to cop – it’s the chance to drink wine.

At their most casual, these next-gen events are a laid-back tasting of low-intervention wines, poured by a friendly team who also serve small plates. At the other end of the spectrum, they’re fully fledged club nights, with trendy wines by the glass and DJ friends of the restaurant bringing a different kind of atmosphere.

Louis Preston Redley is a DJ and founder of Black Wine Club, whose latest event brought together more than 100 of its members and friends to neighbourhood Leytonstone spot Filly Brook. There, DJs Yazmin Lacey and Blissy-E played for a young crowd who danced with glasses full of xarel·lo.

Black Wine Club came about as a result of working at Provisions, a wine and cheese shop with branches in north and east London. “I noticed there were a lot of customers who were people of colour who appeared quite timid and intimidated when walking in,” Louis says, likening this anxiety to walking into a record shop for the first time and trying to buy something without feeling confident of the terminology.

“But sometimes I was getting microaggressions from the customers. There was the assumption I didn’t know anything, even though I’d been working there for years – often for longer than other members of staff I’d be on shift with.” And so he started Black Wine Club in 2023 to create an informal space for people of colour to learn about wine. These events are often sit-down, with a corresponding playlist. Their dance events – the brilliantly named Black Whine Club – is for non-POC friends and family to support the project.

They’ve also collaborated with another event that keeps popping up on my radar: Plots and Parcels. The guest sommelier has equal ranking with the guest DJ on the lineup poster, and they’ve had everyone from WSET teacher Shane Jones to Sinéad Murdoch of Tasca. There’s also Close Ties, which ran a “wine rave” last summer with star chef Anna Søgaard.

Organising such events is time-consuming – and rarely the founder’s full-time job – so when they do come around, they feel like a real occasion, and can garner just as much buzz as a classic club night. In a country with a dying nightlife but a hungry generation eager to drink and dance, maybe wine raves will become a more regular occurrence.