These Wine Bars Are Hot!

The secret sauce behind these wine-first, chef-driven destinations

Sunn’s (New York, NY) is a Korean-inspired wine bar offering banchan and wine (photo credit @sunnsnyc)

For years now, the story has been that wine is losing ground with younger drinkers. Global consumption is at historic lows, and reports keep telling us that Gen Z and Millennials aren’t interested in Cabernet the way their parents were. But walk into a packed wine bar on a Friday night and you’ll see a very different picture: groups of twenty- and thirty-somethings filling small tables, sharing plates, and working their way through glasses of orange wine, pét-nat, or chilled reds.

Both the San Francisco Chronicle and The New York Times have recently covered the surprising popularity of wine bars—especially amongst younger crowds—and their stronger-than-expected wine sales. The contradiction caught our eye, and in our new report The Next Era of Wine, we explored what restaurants can learn from the trend.

We wanted to dig a little deeper into what’s behind the boom, and the lessons restaurants can borrow from these spaces. Many of the natural-wine spots with communal tables and menus of tinned fish are still thriving, but a new wave is emerging—concepts that blend the spirit of a restaurant with the accessibility of a wine bar. These are chef-driven, wine-first destinations with a strong point of view, delivering unexpected pairings, market-driven menus, and wines chosen for their character as much as their pedigree. By focusing on distinctive bottles—sometimes affordable, sometimes rare—and pairing them with inventive, thoughtful food that expands the boundaries of what people expect to eat with wine, these places are redefining what a “wine bar” can be, and helping reshape the way younger diners connect with wine.