Approximately 30 minutes into my visit to new neighbourhood wine bar and shop Drop Dulwich there’s a problem. I’m here to sample a selection of the wines, of which there are 200 in total, but I’ve fallen head over heels in love with my first glass: a deep, dreamy chenin blanc from the Carinus family vineyards in Swartland, South Africa. It exudes a heavenly whiff of a smoky, oaky scent each time I go to take a sip. It’s complex and multilayered, but not hard work – like a good date, really. But I’m here to speed-date some of the main players on owner Hayley Try Carreira’s carefully curated list, not find a quiet corner in which to spend the night canoodling with option one.
“You’ll like plenty of the others,” she promises, before taking me through the 15-strong list of suitors on her wine-by-the-glass menu, and eventually introducing me to a full-bodied, fruity riesling from the Peter Jakob Kühn estate in Rheingau, Germany. She’s right, it’s tasty. My companion’s mineral “laissez faire” fiano from Larry Cherubino’s vines in Western Australia is even tastier. But neither are quite as good a match for my palate as that chenin blanc.
Drop Dulwich is the latest franchise to open as part of the Drop umbrella brand. Founded by friends Ian Campbell and Will Palmer in 2016 – the duo behind wine bar 10 Cases and Parsons seafood restaurant – its mission was to deliver quality wines to Londoners at the click of a button, within the hour. It’s since launched a series of Drop bars across the city – including in Covent Garden, Clapham and Kensington – which also provide a more local delivery service.
A hospitality worker with years of experience working in some of London’s most prestigious restaurants, including The Ledbury and José Pizarro Group, Aussie sommelier Hayley has long been passionate about quality wine. She was a regular user of the Drop Wine app too, before she approached Ian and Will with a bid to run her own Drop bar.
As a franchise, rather than a bar with several branches, each Drop venue looks entirely different and is the vision of its owner-manager. Hayley tells me that French sommelier Victor Guyonnet has decked out his bar Drop on the Common with dark blue interiors and pop art prints. Hers, on the other hand, marries warming, terracotta-washed walls with space age gold lighting. It’s slick and minimalist with a few showy accents, and it’s a space in which you want to dwell.
Next door to the bar is the wine library, where 200 bottles arranged by colour and flavour profile line the walls, with a wooden ladder transporting curious hands to higher shelves. Regardless of whether you plan to take a bottle home, it’s worth a snoop.
Despite only opening a few short days before our visit, the 20-cover bar has already shaken off any ‘best-kept-secret’ status, filling up by 7:30pm. By this point, I’m sipping on a deliciously light red beaujolais from the Domaine de Buis-Rond vineyard in France, while my companion is tackling a tropical orange, the Hermit Ram Zealandia sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, which we joke is so juicy it’s a bit like the soft drink Rio but for grown-ups. I would happily sip in the company of each glass again.
Keeping the room upright, meanwhile, is a short, deli-style bar menu, from which we opt for some sensible hunks of sourdough, a cheese board and a wedge of fennel sausage. When the new Drop app launches at the end of November, you’ll be able to order any one of the 200 wines plus a selection of transportable nibbles to your door, any time before 10pm. You can have your bottle chilled or gift-wrapped too, at no extra cost, Hayley proudly tells me.
As we shrug on our coats, readying ourselves to face the dark, dank air on the other side of the steamed up windows, I find I’m still thinking about my first glass of chenin blanc, like it was the one that got away. So, like a hopeful lover dashing to the airport gates to confess their feelings, I hurtle back into the wine library and voilà! There it is for £19.50 a bottle. We leave together, the bottle nestled under my arm as I thank Hayley for introducing us.
Give Hayley and Drop Dulwich a try – this matchmaker knows her vines.
Drop Dulwich, 1-3 Melbourne Terrace, Melbourne Grove, East Dulwich, London SE22 8RE.
Tuesday & Wednesday 12pm – 9:30pm; Thursday & Friday 12pm – 10:30pm; Saturday 11am – 10:30pm; Sunday 11am – 5:30pm.
www.instagram.com/dropdulwich/
The damage (for 2)
Glass of Carinus family vineyards chenin blanc = £7.50
Glass of Larry Cherubino “laissez faire fiano = £9
Glass of Peter Jacob Kuhn riesling quarzit = £11
Glass of Zealandia sauvignon blanc = £10
Glass of Domaine de buis-ronds beaujolais ‘buyon’ = £7.50
Nocellara olives = £4
Snappery sourdough bread = £4.50
Fennel salami with cornichons = £8
Cheese board = £15
TOTAL: £76.50
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Disabled access: YES
Disabled toilet: NO
Booking: NO
Review: Drop Dulwich – quality wines to stay or go in SE22
