coco de merc

Borough Wines, Hackney Downs: Who knew?

Having lived in Hackney Central for nearly four years now, you would have thought I was pretty in the know of where to eat, drink, and get merry around these joints and would have also come to the realisation that there is more to life than the Mare Street Spoons. (No really, there is...).

For years now, I genuinely thought that the tatty looking 'Borough Wines' place next door to the Hackney Downs Tesco Express was merely a ye olde wine shop, that had probably been open for yonks, entertained maybe a couple customers a month, and was more than likely on the brink of shutting down due to poor sales and no love. A poor man's 'Oddbins' if you will. But how wrong I was. Turns out, it is in fact a once railway engineers' warehouse and now, an unassuming, kitsch little wine bar and shop. Last weekend, some friends and I after weeks and weeks of saying "we should pop in after work...it's only there right?", us all nodding in agreement, saying our goodbyes and tottering off in the opposite direction of the bar, finally took the left turn out of the station and went for a few glasses of red.



At just gone 6pm on a Saturday night, the place was already buzzing. Dimly lit, the narrow looking bar was flanked with long, wooden benches, occupied by chitter chattering small groups, large groups, and couples, all in good and quite boisterous spirits but the bar still invited us in to its open, homely feeling arms. The bar area had a back wall of wine bottle layered upon wine bottle and the white washed walls were lit up by long, teardrop shaped lights, hanging from the highest of ceilings. A lady welcomed us in and sat us down to a table, decorated in tea lights and a massive A3 sized wine menu, ready and waiting for us to peruse its list of 30+ vinos. Now, I'm no connoisseur when it comes to a glass of rouge or any other wine for that matter, so we thought it best to take the waitress' recommendation after she clearly caught us all faux pondering the menu and putting on our best "I want something with a fruity blend but an oakey scent" faces. She clocked that we knew diddly squat and so pointed out to us the South of France 'AC Cahors, Chateau les Croisilles, Prestige 2007', (we were obviously still none the wiser) which she said was a "dark red, sweet black cherry flavour, creamy with hints of chocolate and a leathery finish". Sounded divine.



And it was. It was exactly as she had described and after a monster catch up (a friend had flew in all the way from South Korea), we ordered the bottle. Glasses ranged from £4 to £5.25 and bottles from £20; a good price for a particularly great tasting wine. And that's coming from Jacob Creek's number one fan... Feeling a little bit peckish but with dinner plans elsewhere, wine and chat got us all fancying something to pick at. The menu had a selection of tapas and light bites, all of which had been matched up with a potential love interest in the form of a recommended wine but we eventually ordered the cheese board. This came with a rich selection of four cheeses and a pot of sweet chutney, plus a basket of warm, rustic bread and toasted slices too.



Red wine stained smiles and appetites satisfied enough for the bus ride into Islington for dinner, it was time to make a move. A super cheap bill, an unpretentious, chilled and relaxing atmosphere for catch ups, and a slightly hazy feeling in the head, it was a all in all a lovely evening. The same lady showed us out and wished us a good night and we headed back out onto the bustling Wilton Way road.