For us, a great wine bar shares something with a great home. It’s composed with care and earns your trust over time. This selection spans our communities – from Fitzroy to Kew, South Melbourne to Bayside – and reflects the kind of places we return to, again and again.
Marion
Andrew McConnell’s Marion has been a fixture of Gertrude Street since 2015, and it remains among the city’s most reliably excellent places to spend an afternoon.
Occupying two shopfronts in a former metal plating factory, the space has whitewashed brick walls, ceiling-high wine racks, and a list that spans some 600 bottles – from rare small-batch producers to a rotating selection of natural and minimal-intervention pours. The food changes daily and takes its cues from the cellar. Order a glass and let the afternoon unfold.
Visit: 51–53 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Bar Liberty
Named, improbably, after a line from Star Wars Episode III, Bar Liberty is anything but what you’d expect. On Johnston Street in Fitzroy, this stripped-back bar is the work of an impressive team with backgrounds spanning Attica, Capitano and Rockwell & Sons. The wine list leans natural and biodynamic, with some sourced directly from independent producers. Behind it sits a courtyard, a private dining room upstairs and a Good Food Guide hat on the wall – a wine bar that perpetually punches above its weight.
Visit: 234 Johnston Street, Fitzroy
Carlton Wine Room
Occupying a 19th-century corner building on Faraday Street, the Carlton Wine Room is co-owned by Travis Howe and Andy Joy, two of Melbourne’s most trusted hospitality figures. The wine list has an Italian flavour but ranges widely, and the food is designed with wine in mind rather than the other way around. It is the kind of place that always seems to be doing exactly what it was meant to do.
Visit: 172–174 Faraday Street, Carlton
Bellota Wine Bar
Connected by an archway to the Prince Wine Store – one of Australia’s most celebrated independent wine retailers – Bellota operates with an almost unparalleled depth of cellar behind it. Set in a classic Victorian building on Bank Street, the bar has a distinct European sensibility: marble bar, sunlit courtyard, and a menu from chef Nicky Riemer that brings the same care and provenance to the plate as to the glass. Wines are available by the taste, glass or carafe, which says everything about the approach.
Visit: 181 Bank Street, South Melbourne
Castlerose
Descend a spiral staircase beneath the South Melbourne cafe Clementine and you’ll find yourself somewhere altogether different. Castlerose is a 40-seat underground bar with the moody atmosphere of a mid-century European supper club – dark timber, marble, Italian terrazzo and leather banquettes. The wine list favours Old World classics from Champagne, Burgundy and Italy.
Castlerose is no longer open for drop-ins and instead operates as an event and function space. But it’s worth checking the Instagram for special feature events – or plan your next special celebration with friends.
Visit: 67 Palmerston Crescent, South Melbourne
Bar Alba
A love letter to the Italian enoteca, Bar Alba is husband-and-wife team Jesse and Kym Davidson’s companion to their long-running Kew restaurant, Centonove. Designed by Buchan Group around a nine-metre Calacatta-style bar, the space takes its cues from the suburb’s interwar architecture – art deco meets Mediterranean opulence, with emerald scalloped panelling, gold sconces and walnut joinery displaying over 400 labels. Jesse scouts Italian producers personally on annual trips to Italy, and the bar holds exclusive Australian stockist rights for around 15 of them. This is neighbourhood drinking at its most considered.
Visit: 132 Cotham Road, Kew
Bianchetto
Sibling to Mister Bianco on Cotham Road, Bianchetto arrives via chef Joe Vargetto and beverage consultant Orlando Marzo – the latter a former world’s best bartender. The 42-seat bar is entered through a gold curtain, softly lit by table lamps and the glow of 1960s Italian films projected on the wall. Cocktails lean Italian but carry local inflections – an Olive Oil Martini made with Mount Zero olives, an Americano mixed tableside from a dedicated trolley. Sicilian snacks, amaro gelato and whisky-and-chocolate cigars complete the picture.
Visit: 26–28 Cotham Road, Kew
La Petite Société
Tucked beside Middle Brighton station on Railway Walk, La Petite Société brings a warmly Francophile sensibility to the bayside suburb. This is a neighbourhood bar in the best sense. Australian and international wines sit alongside an extensive cocktail list, and small plates are designed for sharing. Thursday’s rotating $11 pour keeps things lively and the regulars coming back. A necessary find for those south of the river.
Visit: 1 Railway Walk, Brighton
