The numbers don’t lie: the Portuguese drink the most wine per capita of any nationality. Not surprisingly, you don’t have to look far to find the drink in Lisbon, a city where a glass of wine is sometimes cheaper than a bottle of water.
But if you’re looking for a unique wine – perhaps something made by a small producer, a long-lost grape, or a bottle from an obscure region – in a comfortable or perhaps even stylish atmosphere, poured by someone who can tell you a bit about what you’re drinking, things get a little more complicated.
In sharing some of our favorite places to drink wine in Lisbon, we’ve included a couple of self-imposed caveats. First of all, the city is home to some exceptional restaurants that boast forward-thinking wine lists – think Insaciável, Senhor Uva, Tati and Sem – but for this piece, we opted to focus on venues that prioritize bottles and glasses over plates. And secondly, because we love local stuff (and because we live in a country that has more than 200 grape varieties), we decided to limit ourselves to bars that center Portuguese wines (sorry, otherwise excellent wine bars such as Rosie’s Deli and Pinot Bar de Vinhos).
So with all this in mind, here’s our highly subjective list of Lisbon wine bars, and what we drank at them.
The Golden Standard: Black Sheep
We’re reluctant to use superlatives, but Black Sheep is quite possibly Lisbon’s best wine bar (see our full profile of this wine bar here). The Brazilian owners simply have great taste, and they’re virtually guaranteed to have a delicious glass or bottle you’ve probably never heard of. It’s also one of the few places in Lisbon where you’ll find rarities like sherry and champagne. Another highlight here is the staff. They really know their stuff, are enthusiastic and keen to share their knowledge with guests, and a visit to Black Sheep is like a crash course in local wine. The original space used to call itself “Lisbon’s smallest wine bar,” but a 2024 expansion took over the space next door, quadrupling Black Sheep’s real estate, and ensuring elbow room for just about everybody.
We drank: António Madeira Vinhas Velhas Branco 2021. “This wine is a trip to the Dão region,” says co-owner Bruna Ventura, who tells us that the white, made from a blend of grapes, expresses a freshness and salinity characteristic of the wines from this corner of northern Portugal.
The Most Educational: Pigmeu da Ribeira
Mercado da Ribeira – a.k.a. the Time Out Market – doesn’t exactly have cool wine bar street cred. But the wine-focused outlet of Campo de Ourique’s Pigmeu (see our profile of this restaurant here), which moved into the market compound in 2024, has finally filled that void. In particular, we are massive fans of Pigmeu da Ribeira’s near-weekly Aulas Abertas, “Open Classes,” in which owner Miguel Azevedo Peres invites winemakers, wine distributors, sommeliers and others in the industry to lead guided tastings. The cost is low, pours are generous, and your fee even goes toward shop purchases (the knowledge is yours to keep forever). Stop by Pigmeu da Ribeira on any other day, and you’ll have access to a selection of domestic wines that rides the line between natural and classic, as well as delicious snacks including the Dirty Bifana, quite possibly one of the best sandwiches in the city.
We drank: Quinta do Olival da Murta’s Serra Oca Tinta Roriz 2022. Encountered at an Aula Aberta late last year, we fell in love with this low-intervention, light red that boasts red fruit, freshness and elegance.
The Underground: A Viagem das Horas
Perhaps no Lisbon wine bar has made ordering easier than at A Viagem das Horas. Owner Ricardo Maneira has excellent taste in wine, an uncanny knack for remembering what his customers like, and something of a superpower for selecting something they’ll love. And better yet, he keeps the prices of bottles at nearly wholesale-level. The clientele here leans local, and Maneira’s former career as a DJ means that the soundtrack is better than most. Note that A Viagem das Horas is only open from Monday to Friday, except for the occasional food event or DJ set on Saturday.
We drank: Benje Blanco 2022. A wine made from Listán Blanco from Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, with subtle oxidation and volcanic island acidity and salinity (Maneira read our mind – yet again).
The Most Stylish: O Pif
Anjos is arguably Lisbon’s most up-and-coming ‘hood, but O Pif goes back to 2021, before the hype. Follow the tracks of the 28 tram to a corner space with vast windows, high ceilings, walls painted Millennial pink and what appears to be a glowing halo. French owner Adélaïde Biret, who also works as a wine consultant and distributor, sells exclusively Portuguese wines (“With such quality and price, and especially diversity, why would I import?” she tells us). On the day we visited, there were 15 wines by the glass, but Biret claims this will soon increase. Don’t come to O Pif expecting huge pours.
We drank: Pif Rosé 2023. A collaboration between Biret and Quinta de Boa Esperança, just north of Lisbon, this wine represents a custom blend that Biret wanted to resemble “a lighter, Provence-style rosé” with hints of red fruit but with balanced acidity. We sipped our glass with pão de queijo made with cheese from the Azores, and were transported to l’heure de l’apéro in Marseille.
The Best Tunes: Bom Bom Bom
We’re both grateful for and, quite frankly, surprised by all the French people pouring glasses of Portuguese wine here in Lisbon. Bom Bom Bom, in Lisbon’s Graça neighborhood, was opened by Antoine Bisquerra and Cassandra Moreira, a French and French-Portuguese couple, just after the pandemic. There’s an emphasis on natural wines, nearly half of which are Portuguese, the remainder spanning lesser-known wine-producing countries such as Slovenia, Georgia, Croatia and Slovakia. There’s a monthly-changing menu of around 10 wines by the glass; a DJ station, vinyl racks and monthly live jazz point to a fondness for music; and an increasingly ambitious menu, overseen by Moreira, sees Bom Bom Bom creeping in a restaurant direction.
We drank: Meio Rural Cristóvão Jampal 2021. “An intense grape,” says Bisquerra, of the rare Jampal varietal from the Colares region, which packs a vibrant acidity.
The Eclectic Selection: Casa Farta
“The idea was to have an eclectic selection,” says Fransico Santos, one of the co-owners of Casa Farta, in Lisbon’s Anjos neighborhood. Opened in 2022 with a friend also from Viseu, the pair originally envisioned a mercearia, or small shop, but the space now leans more wine bar. And their choices are indeed eclectic; Casa Farta can’t claim as many bottles as the larger places, but we love the scope of labels here, which touches on smaller producers from lesser-known Portuguese wine regions such as Algarve, Trás-os-Montes and Madeira. There’s usually around seven wines by the glass, as well as charcuterie and other bites – “top-level products” in Santos’s words – that pluck from Casa Farta’s shop side.
We drank: Impecável Red 2023. From the Dão region, near where Santos grew up, the monovarietal Touriga Nacional is a light, subtly floral, sophisticated red that he also describes as a “very good value.”
The Coziest: Rude
Rude, located on a busy corner on a main drag in Anjos, has an outdoor seating area that grabs most of the attention. But we love the interior – shaped from a former deli dating back to the 1940s – which feels warm and cozy via tall ceilings, plants, an old marble counter and lots of red. And lots of bottles. Lining the walls are around 60 different labels, many quirky, most from Portugal, but from elsewhere as well; “A really cool selection,” said our drinking companion, and we tend to agree. A chalkboard lists around a dozen selections by the glass, the vast majority of which are Portuguese, and that generally focus on natural and “raw” (presumably low-intervention) wines that start at €6. There’s a short menu of bites (developed by a chef from the 100 Maneiras group), and oysters are also available.
We drank: Dinamite Blanc de Blancs Brut Natur Reserva 2022. A white sparkling from Bairrada made from Arinto, Bical and Chardonnay; dry, fragrant, with fine bubbles and a surprise: peel off the label (there’s a tear strip especially for this) to reveal the vintage.
The Original: Vino Vero
Vino Vero was one of Lisbon’s early natural wine bars, having opened its doors in 2019. Nearly six years later, the party hasn’t stopped, and even on a Monday night you’ll struggle to snag a table at the incredibly popular terrace here (indeed, tiny Travessa do Monte is now home to Bacarao, a Vino Vero spin-off, and two more natural wine bars). Look to the chalkboards for the daily-changing by the glass menu; there’s always four or five low-intervention, small producer Portuguese bottles open, although it must be said that the Vino Vero’s selections tend to lean to the natural end of the spectrum, and some find the by the glass prices here to be high.
We drank: Casal Figueira Tinto 2022. Made predominantly from Castelão grown just north of Lisbon, this light red is berry fruit-forward, with subtle tannins.
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