The 15 Best Wine Bars in Manila
While we love our tapas bars and their selections of wine, we also enjoy wine bars and lounges that put emphasis on places that put wine front and center. Before you clink your glasses, it won’t hurt to find your bearings so you can be well on your way to becoming a vino connoisseur, one bottle at a time. Here, a shortlist of lounges across the city that offer the best wine experience, with their respective spreads of delectable food pairings coming only as secondary.
The Artisan Cellar Door
The Artisan Cellar Door is brought to us by a group of companies engaged in the importation of premium food and beverage lines from the USA, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, and Spain. This ultra-chic wine lounge on Pasong Tamo Extension curates only the best brands in its boozy portfolio, which includes Château Lafite Rothschild from Bordeaux, France, and Viña Los Vascos from Chile, USA. While Artisan Cellar Door is known for its pricier collection of wine and bubbly, it has entry level options to cater to all audiences, from beginners to the more experienced wine drinkers.
Monopole
If you’re up for a quiet, lavish wine affair, Monopole, another stop in Legaspi Village, might just be the perfect place. The posh hideaway exudes exclusivity and elegance through and through, from the sleek ambience, to the imported furniture and fixtures, to the compact seating (it can only accommodate about 16 guests at a time), to the premium selection of wine and champagne housed in Zalto hand-blown glasses. Monopole has over 300 brands on hand, including brands from the owner’s personal collection. To elevate your wine escapade like you’re having drinks at a European pub, swing by and grab a seat by the marble bar.
Dr. Wine
French sommelier Vincent Landais is to thank for bringing in Shanghai’s trendy bistro, Dr. Wine, to the busy Poblacion area where specialty restaurants, cocktail and craft beer bars, and boutique hotels abound. Landais, who is fondly called Dr. Wine, found his sweet spot in the neighborhood in 2017, bringing together over 150 types of French and Spanish wines with a variety of freshly imported cold cuts and other delicacies from France and Germany. Every bit of Dr. Wine takes inspiration from typical European wine bars where shared tables are customary, but it has also replicated the vibe of its Shanghai counterpart, from the chic, upscale atmosphere to the upbeat music.
La Petite Parisienne
La Petite Parisienne, which translates to “little French girl,” brings Paris closer to home. It replicates an experience typical of a modern wine cellar infused with touches of a Parisian café – walls lined with wine bottles, imported cheese and cold cuts on display, an intimate ambience, and colorful art. At this wine bar, you can find an impressive range of wines from French regions including Alsace, Bordeaux, Loire, and Burgundy, and cheeses including the perennial favorites, gouda, brie, and gorgonzola. This quaint wine bar is a top-of-mind for intimate get-togethers and meetings given the exclusivity of the space. In fact, its branches can be closed down for private events where an in-house sommelier can conduct wine and cheese pairings for you and your guests.
The Cellar
If you’re looking for an intimate night out over glasses of wine, The Cellar’s private dining rooms, which seat just 18 people at any one time, is a safe haven. The Cellar is home to the hotel’s carefully curated wine line and some small plates to wash down the robust aftertaste of your drink. It carries about 179 different wine brands enclosed in climate-controlled cellars, so there really ought to be something for everybody. On Wednesdays, the bar hosts Cellar Talks where sommeliers talk about featured wines for the week.
The Wine Club
Find this cozy wine lounge tucked in a quiet area of Legaspi Village where businessmen usually meet for lunch meetings or an intimate night out after work. The Wine Club has been a go-to for premium collectible wines from Napa Valley and Sonoma. Pair your drinks with the bar’s compact selection of Italian delights that highlight the pungent undertones of vino. Admittedly, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the neighborhood nook’s over 300 wine brands, but the owners and the staff are more than willing to help you find the perfect fit. The Wine Club has previously received the Best Enoteca Award twice from Manila's Best Kept Restaurant Secrets.
Sabor Bar de Vinos
Located in Novotel Manila Araneta Center is Sabor Bar De Vinos, which came about following Mr. Jorge Araneta’s request for a proper bar in the Cubao area. Araneta is the chairman, president, and CEO of the Araneta Group, and, in his free time, an avid wine collector. This particular lounge houses Araneta’s personal wine collection, along with some other imported brands, bringing up its total arsenal to 365 – this means one wine bottle for every day of the year. Sabor also has a spacious area where guests are encouraged to dance to Spanish tunes or to the music of live performers. Pair your wines with:
Planet Grapes
It was in 2013 when Planet Grapes sought to introduce wine as an alternative to the local bar scene where beer and whisky dominate. This wine bar sets itself apart from contemporaries by marrying new flavors with familiar tastes, and this shines through in its wine selection (a glorious collection of wines sourced from several regions worldwide) and Filipino street food pairings. Here, you can take your balut, isaw, and chicharon with sips of premium wine that servers can recommend depending on your fancy. After all, Planet Grapes takes wine 101 seriously; not only does it hold special wine pairing classes, but its enomatic dispensers are quick to educate on featured wines by displaying tasting notes on each brand.
Cork Wine & Bar Shop
Cork fits just perfectly in the BGC bar scene, with its luxe interiors keeping to the area’s stylish vibe. While it paints the scene for an upscale, modern wine shop offering only new world wines, a quick look at its cellar shows it also carries a number of brands, those that date back to the 1920s and even those that are hard to come by. This same cellar doubles as Cork’s wine list, which you can drop in on for a quick browse on your chosen bottle for the night. Its bar chow, meanwhile, is kept tight, comprising only staple wine complements plus a few other filling options, showing us that the focus will always be curated wines from vineyards around the globe.
Galileo Enoteca
Galileo Enoteca, or “wine library” in Italian, is your piece of Italy in Manila. This wine bar is not new to the scene, and has since been regarded a top favorite for recreating a typical Italian wine cellar’s rustic interiors and romantic ambience. Beyond Galileo’s home-style entrees and delicatessen, it’s the hundreds of vino on the walls that keep guests on their toes. Patrons usually come for the bar’s wine tasting menu, which includes four kinds of wine taken with the usual suspects: cheese, cold cuts, and dried fruit. A note to the new: don’t leave without trying a dish off of the cheese wheel pasta menu. You won’t regret it!
Vitto's
This hip, laidback wine stop in Quezon City was named after The Godfather character Vito Andolini Corleone. Vitto’s creates a sleek bar scene that marries multiple design elements done in warm, neutral undertones, reminiscent scenes from its movie inspiration. This bar stands out from a slew of restaurants in the area that offer home-style cooking; instead, it focuses on a diverse selection of wines from countries like Italy, Spain, France, Australia, Chile, and the USA, that pairs them with specialties that borrow notes from the Italian, Mexican, and Spanish cuisines. Vitto’s is best known for its wine-all-you-can deals, but people are also talking about its speakeasy Prima Facie, which serves specialty cocktails and a range of other spirits.
Wine Story
Wine Story takes pride in hosting a string of Wine and Sprit Education Trust courses throughout the year where wine lovers can learn more about the different grape varieties used to produce quality wine and spirits from the Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, California Cult regions, sample these wines, and appreciate each one’s influence on the different senses.
Lemuria Restaurant and Wine Bar
Dubbed one of the most romantic restaurants in Manila is Lemuria, an elegant BGC hangout known for a wide selection of fine wines and mouthwatering French-Mediterranean delicacies. It offers private functions where a guest speaker can talk about the best wines to pair with cheeses, cold cuts, and other grazing delights.
Estate Wine
Estate Wine has partnered with Britain’s oldest wine and spirit merchant, Berry Bros. & Rudd, in crafting wine specialty events year-round. It has since hosted aroma masterclasses, wine crawls, wine appreciation sessions, and cheese nights to a handful of enthusiasts in Manila.
Txanton
Txanton classifies itself as a jamoneria, but its owners also manage AWC Philippines, which is one of the largest distributors of wine in the country. Its diverse range of wines is the best pairing for the topnotch jamon available in the bodega. Txanton even has a room, La Sala de Cata, for guests to enjoy fine ham, fine wine, and fine olive oil.
