Morten Andersen tends to walk past Temple Bar, and Piglet is the reason to stop. It sits at the quiet Christchurch end on Cow's Lane, runs a list that pairs natural bottles with classic European appellations, and seats drinkers elbow to elbow without anyone minding.
The room is at 5 Cow's Lane, in the calmer western stretch of Temple Bar near Christ Church Cathedral, a deliberate distance from the stag-party core. It is small and cosy, the kind of place you come to for a glass and stay for a bottle with some food (Piglet official site). Exposed brick and warm lighting set the tone.
Piglet was created by Enrico Fantasia and Thibaud Harang over many glasses of wine and plates of food, and the list reads like it. The cellar is a carefully selected mess where natural, biodynamic and organic wines sit beside the most classic European appellations, with magnums and old vintages given a prominent place and a clear lean toward Italy (Star Wine List).
Three things to order. Ask for a glass of Italian white off the by-the-glass rotation, since the Italian leaning is where the list is strongest. Move to a bottle once you have your bearings, and ask whether any magnum or older vintage is open. Then order across the changing plates, which are built to be mixed, matched and shared rather than run as starter and main.
The food is a real part of the offer, not a token. The menu is an often-changing list of dishes drawn from small artisan producers, designed to suit any appetite from a single snack to a full table (DesignMyNight). It means a long evening here is easy to justify.
The location is the quiet advantage. Cow's Lane is a pedestrian run on the Christchurch side, away from the noise that defines most of Temple Bar, which is why a wine drinker can hear themselves think. The intimacy is the design, not a compromise, and sitting at the bar puts you next to whoever is pouring.
Founders Enrico Fantasia and Thibaud Harang come from the trade rather than the tourist economy, and it tells in how the list is built. Fantasia runs a wine import and distribution business, so the bottles on the Piglet shelf are chosen by someone who sources them for a living, not picked from a wholesaler's catalogue. That access is why a room this size can carry magnums and older vintages it would otherwise never stretch to. The plates follow the same logic, drawn from small producers and changed often enough that regulars come back to see what has landed. It is a wine bar run by wine people, and the quiet Christchurch address keeps it honest.
Who it is for is the wine drinker who wants a real list in a tourist quarter, a pair after something low-key, and anyone who treats sharing plates as the meal. It is wrong for a big group after a table, given the size. For the wider field, our guide to the best wine bars in Dublin covers the rest.
Best time to go is an early weekday evening, when a seat at the bar is realistic and the kitchen has the run of the night. Weekends fill given the small footprint, and the Christchurch end stays calmer than the rest of Temple Bar even at its busiest. A bottle and three plates is the honest way to read the place.
Use Piglet as the civilised end of a Temple Bar evening. For the wider plan, start with our Dublin bar guide, and for a contrasting natural-wine room across town try Loose Canon on Drury Street, all standing room and cheese.
Sources: Piglet Wine Bar official site; DesignMyNight; Star Wine List; Yelp.
