Diogenes the Dog's Sunny Hodge to open second London wine bar

Sunny Hodge, founder of independent wine bar Diogenes the Dog in London's Elephant & Castle, is opening a second wine bar in Battersea.

Opening in August, Aspen & Meursault will be a low-intervention wine bar serving morning coffee to evening drinks.

During the day, the bar will be a spot for coffee and pastries alongside a selection of grocery items and organic bread. The space will transition to an intimate natural wine bar in the evening, with a selection of small plates and snacks.

The bar will look to address misconceptions and questions around natural wine by sharing the science, agricultural practices and chemical processes behind them and removing confusing jargon.

The wine list, most of which will be available by the glass, will include biodynamic Champagne and Franciacorta, an array of orange wines, as well as low-intervention classics, ranging from Albarino, Rioja, Fleurie, Chianti, Côte de Nuits, and ‘off the beaten path options' from Eastern Europe, the Baltics and Wales.

The snacks and sharing plates will include homemade hummus and artichoke dip, bio Camembert, burrata, grilled spicy chorizo or morcilla and Devil's Mortar on focaccia.

The name has been inspired by the growing distance between man and nature. Aspen trees are one of the largest living organisms on the earth, where a grove of trees can be connected underground by their roots, while Meursault is the main protagonist of Albert Camus' existential novel L'Étranger (The Stranger).

Photo: Daniel Ogulewicz