KERB
Ian Jones, Food and Drink Editor
Fellow children of the 80s will remember the game Kerby with great fondness. What could be better than chucking a ball at the edge of the pavement, for hours on end? Well, Kerb in Ancoats has absolutely nothing to do with that. It’s a natural wine bar, slash art gallery, slash lowkey events hub, and one of the standout high-end drinking destinations in all of Manchester.
As a venue, it’s understated and quietly cutting-edge. The walls are stark white, showcasing a rotation of genuinely innovative artwork – think amorphous blobs of psychedelic resin or smashed-up iPads stamped with agitprop slogans. No trust fund kid’s holiday snaps here.
There’s a curved seating area in the middle, perfect for Kerb’s irregular and highly recommended wine-tasting sessions, or just to catch up with mates, chew the friendly staff’s ears off or make new Ancoatsian chums.
The wine list is ever-changing and never, ever boring. Oranges, sparkling reds, non-alcoholic, cider specials, every inch of the wine terroir is covered. Our favourite? After years of snobbily dismissing rosé, we’re forced to eat our hats after a sip of the sublime Domaine de Triennes. It’s organically grown in Provence, France, and seemingly designed to wreck the stereotypes surrounding pink wine. It’s a treat, grab a glass.
Outside of this, Kerb has guest DJs, including the hotly tipped Nothing Special duo every third Thursday, playing location-appropriate, blissed-out tracks. First Thursdays of the month are for “KERB X The Norah Store: Sip + Shop”, which is a 2024 way of saying “buy a glass of wine in Kerb, then go next door to The Norah Store and drink it while shopping for clothes”. Other Thursdays are when the wine tastings happen, nip in and ask for more details.
Grapewise, KERB has a passion for wine in all its forms, but the team have a true devotion to natural wine, praising both its low impact on the environment and the purity of the taste. To quote the KERB gang directly, “Drinking natural wine means supporting smaller producers, who have an intimate relationship with their soil, their fruit and their region. It’s about farming with minimal intervention.”
Their wine is sourced from selected importers and will vary by seasonality and availability. The bad news? Nothing lasts forever – this isn’t the wine rack at Aldi. The good news? There’s always something new to dazzle your tastebuds.
