In 2018 we launched Wineslinger to lead people to places around Australia where they can enjoy a glass of wine, whilst at the same time encouraging the creativity and excellence in this environment.
We’re presenting an annual Top 50 venues list as determined by a cross section of Australia’s leading wine and hospitality tastemakers – 100 winemakers, sommeliers and journalists – who vote on their favourite wine haunts.
It is then up to the public to decide which of the Top 50 venues wins the ‘People’s Choice’. The other trophies include top spot ‘Wineslinger’, ‘Best New Haunt’, and the ‘Maverick’ which recognises a venue pushing the boundaries of possibility. All trophy winners will be announced on October 19.
In the inaugural year, City Wine Shop took the overall title as voted on the panel of 100+ industry leaders, and Harvest Newrybar was the most popular venue as voted by the public, taking out the People’s Choice award.
Last year, Sydney’s 10 William Street took out the overall prize, while Margaret River’s Settlers Tavern won the People’s Choice award. There were two new awards added in 2019, with Perth’s Wines of While winning the Best New Haunt, as best venue under two years old, while Byron Bay’s Supernatural Cellars was our first Maverick recipient, as the most adventurous venue, pushing boundaries to breaking point.
We want to lead people to venues where they can have a great wine experience.
The objective of this award is to showcase and celebrate the venues around Australia where our type of wine folk like to enjoy a glass of wine, or two, or more… Places with approachability, energy and adventure.
This award is not about one component such as food and wine matching, or the wine list, or the service… it is about the whole experience. What draws us all to those places where we like to enjoy wine is really the sum of the parts.
It’s often that undefinable thing a place has that makes it special. It is up to panellists to each establish their own lens of what venue has the best experience for wine drinkers.
This award is also an opportunity to recognise the originality, commitment, and quality of a venue’s offering.
There are blurred lines between wine bars, restaurants and pubs. Food and wine go hand in hand, so it’s hard to think of an on-premise venue where food doesn’t play a very good supporting role in the experience.
Boundaries of scope for this award include:
New South Wales, Paddington
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2019 Wineslinger
2019 Top 50
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An offshoot of Potts Point’s much-loved Fratelli Paradiso, 10 William St shed the skin of modern Australian-Italian dining with a push away from fried calamari with rocket et al, delving into a new form of Italian experimentation. Respectful and subtle experimentation, that is. And while Fratelli Paradiso has long stuck to a wine list that…
New South Wales, Sydney CBD
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2021 Top Venues
2020 Top 50
Toby Hilton and brothers Anton and Stefan Forte of The Swillhouse Group have been responsible for some game-changing bars in Sydney, from Shady Pines Saloon to Baxter Inn and Frankie’s Pizza. More recently, they have had restaurants in their sights, with Restaurant Hubert, then Alberto’s Lounge, in 2018, gently shaking the foundations of Sydney dining…
Victoria, Fitzroy
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Bar Liberty is a canvas for the talents of ex-Attica duo Banjo Harris Plane and Michael Bascetta, a disruptor, a chance to throw out the formality, the rules, and have at it with instinct and raw talent.
ACT, Canberra
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Bar Rochford’s location in the historic Melbourne Building, which was built in 1927, is perhaps salient. When owner Nick Smith opened the doors in 2016, he’d taken inspiration both from the classic wine bars of Europe and the small bars that Melbourne is so well known for. And while Bar Rochford would slip into the…
New South Wales, Sydney CBD
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2018 Top 50
Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt’s influence on dining and drinking in Sydney is hard to underestimate. They now have four restaurants under their umbrella, but it was with Bentley Restaurant + Bar that they found their long stride. And that original combination of Hildebrandt’s adventurous wine selections and Savage’s clever cooking is as exciting as…
New South Wales, Double Bay
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Paul Jones brought some useful things with him when he set up Bibo Wine Bar in an old leather-goods shop in Bay Street Double Bay. Although he didn’t have the operational skills to run a wine bar, he did know how to build and fit one out. As well as being an architect, Paul has…
Victoria, Carlton
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2020 Top 50
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The Carlton Wine Room was rebooted in early 2018 by somewhat of a hospitality dream team: Andrew Joy (former manager of Marion and Cumulus Up), Travis Howe (Coda and Tonka sommelier and co-owner) and chef John Paul Twomey (who spent a decade with Andrew McConnell as his development chef and second in command). So, one…
Victoria, Melbourne City
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2018 Wineslinger
2018 Top 50
From a single site adjacent to the Princes Theatre, business partners Con Christopoulos and Josh Brisbane have – over the course of a decade or two – acquired the entire Spring Street frontage up to the lane that borders the Imperial Hotel. Starting with the European and Melbourne Supper Club – which saved a whole…
Queensland, Fortitude Valley
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Cru Bar & Cellar is woven into the fabric of Brisbane, with the pioneering venue never seeming to show its age, even after over a decade and a half. Wrapped around a central onyx bar, tables skirt the perimeter of the building, with patrons even seated on the sills of the retractable windows, almost spilling…
New South Wales, Potts Point
Wineslinger
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At Geralds, the early arrivals dictate the open bottles, which can be switched around once exhausted, with ten typically open at any one time.
Victoria, Melbourne City
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Some years back, Christian McCabe left behind successful restaurant Matterhorn, in Wellington, to try his luck across the Tasman. That first venture was the celebrated, though now closed, Town Mouse in Drummond Street, Carlton. Along with Town Mouse chef and co-owner Dave Verheul (a Matterhorn alumnus), McCabe branched out further, and more boldly, in 2015,…
New South Wales, Chippendale
2020 Top 50
2019 Top 50
2018 Top 50
Amongst a happily crowded field that has been redefining the culinary landscape in this country, Mat Lindsay has stood out somewhat since the opening of his ground-breaking restaurant Ester in 2013. Working with the very back-to-basics essential of today’s chef–fire–he has forged (pardon the pun) a singular path of deceptively simple and visually exquisite dishes…
Victoria, Brunswick East
2020 Top 50
Hannah Green’s Etta has firmly established itself as the vibrantly busy neighbourhood restaurant that she set out to create back in 2017. That feel of a local place, a bistro and wine bar, a community favourite is strong in Etta’s DNA, but so too are the crisp skills and wine expertise that Green forged working…
New South Wales, Sydney CBD
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Sommelier Stuart Knox got his start in the wine game after begging to be promoted from waiter to sommelier at London institution Bibendum, Terence Conran’s first restaurant. Three years later, and the young Knox had quite the education after handling the 1500-bin wine list (compiled by Matthew Jukes at the time) and a discerning clientele…
New South Wales, Brunswick Heads
2020 Top 50
Located in Brunswick Heads, just 15 minutes from the buzz of Byron Bay, Fleet is about as compact a restaurant as you’ll find, with just 14 seats, mainly arrayed down the table-height concrete bar, with high stools facing out the front window. In its five years, Fleet has helped to redefine dining possibilities outside of…
Victoria, South Yarra
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Words like ‘institution’ and ‘iconic’ get tossed around a lot, and not always with deep justification. But France-Soir, near the top of the Toorak Road hill in Melbourne’s South Yarra, has earned both of those monikers, and some time ago. It is indeed an iconic institution, and an establishment with a loyal following that few…
Victoria, Carlton North
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At Geralds, the early arrivals dictate the open bottles, which can be switched around once exhausted, with ten typically open at any one time.
Tasmania, Launceston
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2020 Top 50
Opening a hospitality venture during a global pandemic is not something that even the most thorough business plan would address (well, they might now). But Ricky Evans and Chanel Parratt’s plans on opening a wine bar – aligning Evans’ Two Tonne Tasmania and Havilah wine labels with like-minded makers – were not going to be…
South Australia, Adelaide CBD
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If you judged a book by its cover, you might never peg Hellbound as a serious wine bar. The retro-feel ‘wine bar’ sign that points prospective customers down a flight of stairs may be encouraging, but it speaks more of dive bar than it does Willi’s Wine Bar. There’s a giant caricature of a Rousseau…
Queensland, South Brisbane
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Until he opened La Lune Wine Co, chef Paul Mc Givern was perhaps best known for his exploits on the fine dining scene, notably at East Brisbane’s The Wolfe, which achieved its fair share of critical acclaim. And though McGivern again pushed into that sphere with Corella (now closed), the equation that underpins La Lune…
Queensland, West End
2020 Top 50
2019 Top 50
Andrea Contin and Valentina Vigni opened La Lupa Pizza Bar to celebrate their Italian heritage, but also to move forward, to redefine where necessary. Situated in Brisbane’s West End at the base of the Light + Co. apartment building, which was built on the site that provided the gas for Brisbane’s gas street lighting back…
Western Australia, Perth City
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Down a flight or two of stairs, Lalla Rookh Bar & Eating House is tucked well away from the business-minded bustle of St Georges Terrace in Perth’s CBD. Indeed, it is somewhat of a sanctuary from the traffic and the soaring glass and concrete, a relaxed ‘tavern’ (their words) that also has an enviable food…
Western Australia, Mount Lawley
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Before launching Le Rebelle in 2019, Sarah and Liam Atkinson had certainly done some yards. Over the years, the pair have worked at some of Perth’s hottest destinations, including, collectively, at Print Hall, Star Anise and wine mecca Lalla Rookh. The husband-and-wife duo had also previously teamed up to open Miss Kitty’s Saloon in 2012…
South Australia, Adelaide CBD
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2020 Best New Haunt
Leigh Street Wine Room is one of those rare places that feels like it’s been there for decades, smoothed and polished over the years. It hasn’t, of course, with LSWR pulling their first corks in 2019. But Nathan and Sali Sasi’s temple to natural wine has made its mark in indelible fashion, anchoring itself as…
Western Australia, Albany
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Take in the fin de siècle room lounging in the restaurant or lodged in the bar, and you can eat and drink just as well in either, with snacks or a deeper investigation into French and Vietnamese fare, sometimes kept well apart, and sometimes meshed.
New South Wales, Darlinghurst
2020 Top 50
2019 Top 50
2018 Top 50
Love, Tilly Devine (named after notorious brothel madam and organised crime boss Matilda Devine) slipped into its long stride shortly after it opened in 2010. Although it’s hard now to imagine how it could not succeed, so firmly is it imprinted on Sydney’s identity, Matt Swieboda’s move away from the embrace of Peter Gilmore’s highly…
Tasmania, Hobart
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Kobi Ruzicka had a wine bar concept in the mental planning stage for quite some years, but it was the opportunity to lease the site adjoining his acclaimed Hobart restaurant, Dier Makr, that finally saw it realised. The exit of the café was well timed, as Ruzicka’s restaurant was soaking up a good bit of…
Western Australia, Subiaco
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Joel Valvasori-Pereza first introduced Perth’s dining public to the joys of Friulian cuisine with his lengthy stint as Head Chef at Lalla Rookh. After turning in his apron in 2016, a new venture wasn’t far off, with the chef opening Lulu La Delizia in Subiaco by the end of the year. It’s hard to overestimate…
Western Australia, South Fremantle
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Before Joel Rees and Danielle de Almeida opened Madalena’s, they were Fremantle food truck pioneers. In 2013, they talked the council into approving a permit for their mobile offering of Brazilian Street Food, Comida do Sul. That van became a welcome site on Fremantle’s streets, as well at festivals, weddings and other events. Now with…
Queensland, South Brisbane
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Maeve Wine Bar is housed in somewhat of an enviable site, with it backing onto Brisbane’s thriving Fish Lane precinct, but perhaps more significant is the grandeur of the heritage building whose first floor it occupies. Built in 1929 for the Queensland National Bank, the nods to classical architecture have been given new life in…
Victoria, Fitzroy
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If Gertrude Street Enoteca and the City Wine Shop are the pioneers of Melbourne’s drink-in wine stores, then Andrew McConnell’s Cumulus Up and Marion can lay reasonable claim to capturing the essence of what are, somewhat inelegantly, known as ‘barstaurants’. Perhaps this pitching of wine and food in equal measure was not necessarily the intent,…
South Australia, Adelaide CBD
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In 2014, Pablo Theodoros (The Stanley Bridge Tavern), Frank Hannon-Tan (Amalfi Ristorante), Michael Andrewartha (East End Cellars) and David LeMire MW took possession of the old East End Cellars site to open Mother Vine. Starting as a wine bar with some simple snacks, Mother Vine has grown to become one of Adelaide’s most-loved food and…
Victoria, Fitzroy
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Daniel Lewis and Simon Benjamin have given the ‘small is beautiful’ mantra somewhat more credence with their charmingly petite all-day eatery, Napier Quarter. Lewis hails from Brisbane, while Benjamin would be known by many a Melburnian as the former part-owner and front man of the much cherished, and also modestly proportioned, institution that is Bar…
New South Wales, Bondi
2020 Top 50
Ode, on Bondi Road, Bondi, is very much a local’s haunt that blurs the line between casual restaurant and wine bar, as many modern wine-centred hotspots do. But that notion of being a neighbourhood place (bar, restaurant, wine bar…) – somewhat carefree, familiar, pretence free – shouldn’t be mistaken for a lack of depth. Ode…
Victoria, Brunswick East
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Old Palm Liquor is the younger Lygon Street sibling of the already iconic Neighbourhood Wine. Opening in 2013, and expressly reflecting it’s anchoring in the local area, Simon Denman and Almay Jordaan’s Neighbourhood Wine has also become a destination for those further afield, drawn by Jordaan’s Euro-leaning menu and the vast collection of minimal-intervention wine…
Western Australia, Perth City
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After a $100 million restoration, the State Buildings are now home to some of Perth’s most exciting hospitality establishments, with three of them under the Petition umbrella. The restaurant side of things, Petition Kitchen, is open all day, with service stretching from 7am (8am on weekends) right through until late into the night. Beer Corner…
New South Wales, Surry Hills
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2020 Top 50
2019 Top 50
When Matt Lindsay and business partner Julien Dromgool took on the lease for the corner site in the recently completed and uber hip Paramount House Hotel, in Commonwealth Street, their aim was not to turn out another Ester, their critically acclaimed and much-loved Chippendale wood-fired fine diner. Well, fine diner is perhaps not truly reflective…
New South Wales, Sydney CBD
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Matthew Swieboda has made more than a little impact on the Sydney drinking scene, with his iconic Love, Tilly Devine refashioning what Sydneysiders drank and how they drank it. That swing from the formal to the personal, from the conventional to the artisanal, was given further flight with his collaboration with Nathaniel Hatwell at Dear…
Western Australia, Margaret River
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2019 People's Choice
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Margaret River’s beloved Settlers Tavern started life in 1977 as a haven for surfers, riffraff not considered suitable for the pub that serviced the then 1000 residents of the township of Margaret River. Since then, the population has grown six-fold, and Settler’s Tavern has grown with it, becoming a live music hub, as well as…
Queensland, Fortitude Valley
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2020 Maverick
Snack Man is Cameron and Jordan Votan’s moody adjunct to their well-lit, minimalist canteen, Happy Boy. While the latter focuses on dishes from the barbecue and blisteringly hot woks, with craft beer and local small-producer wines, the latter is all, unsurprisingly enough, about snacks, or small plates, with inspiration coming from regional Chinese cuisine, and…
Tasmania, Hobart
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Chef Matt Breen does compact particularly well. Following on from the success of his lauded bolthole of a restaurant, Templo, in Hobart, Breen went smaller again, opening Sonny in 2019. Both venues accommodate about 20 patrons in a sitting, but at Templo we’re talking tables and chairs and a focus on dining, while Sonny is…
Tasmania, Launceston
2020 Top 50
While Hobart has soaked up a good deal of the spotlight over the last little while, Launceston is home to one of Tasmania’s most iconic restaurants, the pioneering Stillwater. Occupying the historic Ritchie’s Mill – an 1830s flour mill – at the entrance to the Cataract Gorge on the banks of the Tamar, Stillwater has…
South Australia, McLaren Vale
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The Salopian Inn is about as iconic as a regional restaurant gets, setting the tone for McLaren Vale dining for decades. Karena Armstrong took over that revered 1851 homestead in 2013, and she has elevated it even further to be one of South Australia’s most acclaimed dining destinations, as well as a mecca for wine…
South Australia, Summertown
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On the face of it, The Summertown Aristologist started as a restaurant that acts as a showcase for the wines of Anton van Klopper (Lucy Margaux) and Jasper Button (Commune of Buttons). But it’s a lot more than that. A whole lot more. Van Klopper sat on the lease of an old shop on Greenhhill…
Tasmania, Hobart
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Whitney Ball and Tom Westcott had some serious restaurant credentials before they took the lease on the Hobart Hotel some two-and-a-bit years ago. The couple’s last stint before self-employment was at the revered Franklin, with Ball managing the front of house and Westcott on the pans. The move to a pub that has long been…
Victoria, Geelong
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2020 Top 50
2020 People's Choice
While Melbourne may have fallen for the enoteca model of wine bar somewhat earlier, it wasn’t until the arrival of Andy Leigh and Lewis Phiddian’s Union Street Wine in early 2014 that Geelong properly succumbed to its charms. Gutting an old shopfront with the help of family and friends, the pair installed a bespoke polished…
New South Wales, Marrickville
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Brothers Julian and Dominic Abouzeid opened their Marrickville wine bar, Where’s Nick, in 2017, with the third brother taking naming rights only. The story, as they tell it, was that the project was built around the three siblings, but Nick insists he never agreed to be involved. As they say, “he [said he] wanted nothing…
Western Australia, Perth
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2019 Best New Haunt
Sam Winfield likes to keep busy. And he likes to follow his heart. At a point when his career as a surgeon (yes, it’s Dr Winfield, thank you very much) was blossoming, Winfield threw his energy into an empty Federation Art Nouveau shopfront at the top of William Street, with the aim of creating Perth’s…
Victoria, Daylesford
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Winespeake Cellar + Deli is Daylesford’s new wine and cheese mecca. Well, that’s true and untrue at the same time. Winespeake is the evolution of Jen and Owen Latta’s Wine & The Country, Daylesford’s previous wine and food mecca. Thankfully, closing the doors on their much-loved seven-year-old wine-store-wine-bar-deli in the middle of a global pandemic…
New South Wales, Surry Hills
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WyNo x Bodega is a merger of two of Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz’s businesses. The pair, who gave Sydney dining a fair shake with their fire-fuelled homage to Argentinian barbecue, Porteño, first broke onto the scene with Bodega in 2006. Today, their stable of restaurants – exclusively run or as partnerships – is an…
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