Best Wine Bars in Richmond
Richmond, Virginia — updated August 21, 2026
Four Richmond-area wine bars worth a seat, from a Jackson Ward bottle shop pouring clean-farmed wine to a Cary Street room that closes on Sundays.
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Richmond's wine bars split into two camps: small bottle shops that pour by the glass and pivot to dinner service in the evening, and full restaurants built around a list. The best of them keep short weeks, so the schedule matters as much as the pour. Below, four independent spots, ordered by how convincingly the reviews back them up.
1. Penny's Wine Shop
Penny's is the clearest answer in the city to "where do I get a good glass and something to eat with it," because it runs as a bottle shop and a kitchen at once. The full menu, a rotating set of local, seasonal small plates built to go with the clean-farmed wine and beer list, starts at 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Those are also the only days the shop is open, so a Monday plan will not work here. The Brook Road address puts it a short walk from Jackson Ward. At 4.9 from 188 reviews, the rating is high and has enough behind it to take seriously.
2. Celladora Wines
Celladora holds a perfect 5.0, though from 101 reviews, which makes it promising rather than proven. It keeps the longest week on this list: 3 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 2 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 1 to 7 p.m. Sunday, which makes it the rare Richmond wine bar open on a Sunday afternoon. The room is small, on North Lombardy just off the Fan's northern edge, and reservations are handled by text or phone rather than an online system. Worth calling ahead if you want a table on a weekend evening.
3. Echelon Wine Bar
Echelon is the downtown option, on East Cary Street in Shockoe Slip, and the one to pick if you are coming straight from an office. Happy hour runs 3 to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, when the room opens; the bar closes at 9 p.m. those nights and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. It is closed Sunday entirely, which catches people out. The 4.6 rating comes from 114 reviews, a modest sample but a consistent one.
4. Annie Ruth's Wine Bar and Bistro
Annie Ruth's sits at Harbourside Centre in Midlothian, a drive from the city, and earns its place by being a full restaurant rather than a bar with snacks: brunch, lunch, dinner, craft cocktails and bottled beer alongside the wine. It is also the most tested entry here, with 444 reviews behind a 4.4, which is a settled number rather than an early one. Doors open at 11 a.m. Wednesday through Friday and 10 a.m. on weekends, with Sunday service ending at 3 p.m. Gluten-free crust and bread are available on request.
What we left off
Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar and Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant both carry high review counts in Richmond, but both are national chains and fall outside what this list covers. Sugar & Twine, a West Cary Street bakery and cafe that closes in the afternoon, is a good coffee stop and not a wine bar, so it came off as well.