It’s got the look of a New York chophouse and the confidence of a footy player in a suit jacket and tie.

A cosy, nostalgic drinking hole that makes you feel like you’ve stumbled into someone’s gloriously curated living room. The sprawling verandah, communal tables, reclaimed jarrah and charcoal grills give it warmth without fuss.

Their 2024 Speedo Gris takes Pinot Gris by the hand, walks it into a lo-fi fermentation room and tells it to strip down and get dirty. Skin contact? Yes. Funk? Absolutely. A label that looks like a pool party got printed on an old photocopier? Of course.

If Billy Button’s Saperavi were a person, it would be the wealthy emo trust fund kid you knew at school. It is mysterious, brooding and frankly too dark for a 2 pm tasting without some food, but here we are.

The man who helped define the city’s dining scene in the 2000s, gave it edge with The Smith, and heat with Lucy Liu has returned after a few quiet years up north, and he’s not here to warm the bench.

If wines were people, Harriet would be that enigmatic aunt who arrives unannounced, bearing tales of Tuscan lovers and a suitcase full of exotic spices.

Rhône roots, Yarra swagger. If you want to taste what modern Aussie Syrah should be doing, not trying to win arm-wrestling matches with Barossa Shiraz, this is it. No jammy bombast, no oak overkill and no need to shout.

But every once in a while, a bottle comes along that walks the tightrope between vegetal and vivacious with all the poise of a French acrobat who microdoses acid. Rarer than rocking horse poo, Domain Simha Sauvignon Blanc from Louise Radman and Nav Singh is a Tasmanian temptress

If you think all good Syrah must be birthed from some misty Rhone Valley like a Victorian novel heroine in a corset, allow Château Oumsiyat to politely punch you in the palate.

Coonawarra is undeniably the national cabernet capital.

Embla leans into wood-fired cooking and seasonal ingredients, without feeling like it is jumping into trends. Some real integrity here!

If wine could tell a story, Billy Button Mysterious Malvasia  would be the elusive, mysterious character in an epic novel. This bottle...

Standing this up against a local Pinot makes for some interesting tasting.

On the honk its all smoky and rustic with elements of that barnyard nonsense

This wine first arrived as part of a mixed pack from our friends BenandWine Ben is a great bloke, an under appreciated wine mind with a...

Regular readers will know this wine scoffer has a thing for natural wine - skinsy, funky, natural, orange... it is all about wines with...

You know those cool kids at school who were popular for no reason, and seemed to get away with doing not much but were still popular? I...

For the last decade and a bit , Tim Webber and Matt Swieboda have operated Love Tilly Devine at 91 Crown Lane Darlinghurst. Its a small,...

You know that feeling or at least I hope you do, when you have a beer from a brewery which is life changing (I kid you not, we are bloody...

And so the obsession with skin contact wine continues. It seems I can't leave the house these days without finding myself back home with...