Renegade Urban Winery

Renegade Urban Winery | Wine-Making in Walthamstow

London is not the first place you’d expect to find a winery.

And in the middle of Blackhorse Beer Mile – well, that’s even more unexpected.

Head down the row of the monolithic, angular warehouses and breweries that make up the gamut of the fabled beer mile, and you’ll see a bright purple neon sign saying ‘Open’ beckoning you on. Inside Renegade Urban Winery are all the things a winery ought to have – towering vats standing guard, dozens of fat barrels patiently lining up and waiting to be filled …and overlooking it all is a raised mezzanine decorated with tables, chairs, and a kitchen.

Yes, a kitchen. Because Renegade has a line-up of up-and-coming chefs and food outfits passing through to keep punters well-fed while they sample their wines. Previous residents Retan have now shipped out, and moving in on 4th May are The Italians Upstairs, a fresh pasta outfit who have pinched their recipes directly from their 4ft tall Nonna. They’ll be serving up bowls of the good stuff, as well as Italian small plates, Thursday – Saturday evenings.

To drink, well, you’re in a winery, so wine makes sense – and as an urban winery, Renegade make their juice with grapes taken from some of the most vaunted small vineyards in England and Europe (you can read about the whole process on their website, here). If you really want to bone up, they run tours of the winery every Saturday, which over the course of an hour will introduce you to the processes behind wine-making, and then give you a chance to sample their wares.

But on any given night there’s also cocktails on offer, like an espresso martini and a Champagne & oyster gin martini (made with oyster vermouth).

Handy if you don’t want to do things the way one might expect.

NOTE: The Italians Upstairs will be cooking at Renegade Urban Winery from 4th May 2023. They’ll be there each week from Thurs-Sun, and you can book a table HERE.

Renegade Urban Winery | Unit 7, Lockwood Way, Walthamstow, E17 5RB

Want to make a day of it beforehand? Check out our Walthamstow itinerary