The SWURL Guide To Drinking Wine In Boston

Where to drink when you’re tired of Sam Adams being the default: the wine bars, restaurants, and bottle shops shaping Boston’s wine scene.

We used to think of Boston as a pub town: the perfect Boston Chardonnay (Guinness), dark wood-paneled bars, and all the Irish coziness you could want. But the more we wandered from neighborhood to neighborhood, the more we realized there’s something special happening in the city’s wine scene.

Over the past two years, we’ve met the people shaping that landscape: Spencer Payne at Neighborhood Wines, Alyssa Mikiko DiPasquale of The Koji Club, Haley Fortier at haley.henry, and the Gray’s Hall crew: Matt Thayer, TJ Downey, and Gabe Branch. Each is building their own corner of the scene and together it feels distinctly and proudly Boston.

Big thank you to Boston native, Xana Turner-Owens, for her work on this guide. It’s been a while in the making and we’re excited to finally share it.