Here is a rare thing: one of England’s most exciting new sparkling wines, available exclusively in magnum, being poured by the glass at one of east London’s most talked-about new restaurants. For the whole of July, Tavern London in Shoreditch is serving Black Chalk’s Eighty Nine Point Six at £17 a glass, alongside Carlingford Oysters at £5 each. If you have been looking for a reason to visit Tavern London, you have just found one.
Eighty Nine Point Six is a Blanc de Blancs from award-winning Hampshire estate Black Chalk, and the name tells you exactly what it is about. The wine is sourced from three of Black Chalk’s four estate vineyards, Upper Levels, Rivers, and HiDE, all of them sitting on chalk soils laid down 89.6 million years ago. That geological precision is not just a story: it is the reason the wine tastes the way it does. English sparkling wine has staked its reputation on chalk, and this is chalk as specific and deliberate as it gets.
It is also available exclusively in magnum, which is the correct decision. Bigger bottles age better, they serve a table rather than a solitary glass, and they have a tendency to turn an ordinary evening into an occasion. Black Chalk is not making Eighty Nine Point Six for casual Tuesdays. They are making it for the kind of moment that deserves a wine with 89.6 million years of context behind it.
Tavern London opened in April 2026, from the team behind Nest and Restaurant St Barts, and it has established itself quickly as a place that takes British produce seriously. Whole animal butchery, open fire cooking, seasonal ingredients sourced directly from British farmers, fishermen and growers: the cooking here has a directness and confidence that suits a wine of this character.
The pairing Tavern recommends is its Carlingford Oysters, served three ways: shallot mignonette, Todoli lemon, and Tabasco. It is a pairing that makes complete sense. The ancient chalk terroir of Black Chalk’s Hampshire vineyards and the briny minerality of Carlingford oysters are pulling from the same register, and the combination is one of those food and wine pairings that needs no further justification once you have tried it. Oysters are £5 each. A glass of Eighty Nine Point Six is £17. A magnum, should the evening call for it, is £200.
Tavern London is at 374-378 Old Street, Shoreditch, EC1V 9LT. The Eighty Nine Point Six by the glass is available throughout July 2026 only.
Black Chalk launched in 2018 with two wines from the 2015 vintage, Classic and Wild Rose, both small-batch and traditionally made with careful oak and lees ageing. In 2020 the estate invested in four chalkland vineyard sites in Hampshire’s Test Valley and completed its winery near Andover just in time for harvest. The winemaking team, Jacob Leadley, Zoë Driver and Andy Wiles, now produces a portfolio of seven wines across sparkling and still, including a Blanc de Noirs (Inversion), a still rosé (Dancer In Pink), and Rumour Has It, a still Chardonnay from the Kent North Downs.
The estate also runs a programme of events at its winery and tasting room in Andover, including Friday Night Lates, and is increasingly one of the Hampshire names that serious English wine drinkers have on their radar.
By the glass at Tavern London, throughout July, at £17. A magnum direct from Black Chalk is £165 via blackchalkwine.co.uk. Tavern London: tavernlondon.co.uk
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