The reality is most people buy their wine from a bottle shop or “Bottle-o” as they are affectionately referred to in Australia. To be honest I would prefer if people purchased wine directly from the wineries, especially in bush fire impacted areas, or even from the Wine Matchmaker. But I understand it is a convenience thing … you need a bottle now and the local bottle shop is really handy. But not all bottle shops are the same. So which one do you choose?
You may be surprised to hear that most of the big bottle shop chains are owned by two main players: Woolworths and Coles. Woolworths owns Dan Murphy’s, BWS , Cellarmasters and Pinnacle Liquor, while Coles owns Liquorland, First Choice Liquor and Vintage Cellars. They target different areas and buyers, for example Vintage Cellars is for more upmarket wine and wine buyers, while Dan Murphy’s caters for all buyers from the $5 Chardonnay to the $700 Grange and everything in between. I will be covering how to approach Dan Murphy’s (or Uncle Dan’s as I sometimes refer to it) in a future post. But there are lots of Bottle-o options out there.
There are many local wine stores out there, and they offer great service and value. I would like to give a shout out to two in particular. Nicks Wine Merchants in Doncaster has a great range of wines and spirits with prices that are sometimes lower than Dan Murphy’s. Their website and newsletter has some great information and they partner with some great local wineries to do tastings and events. Armadale Cellars, surprisingly enough in Armadale, is run by a bloke called Phil who is larger than life, has a great attitude towards wine and runs some excellent events. His Shiraz challenge where you get to taste the Penfolds Grange is well worth looking at. His rambling store contains a great selection of Australian and foreign wines as well as older vintages at reasonable price. There will be other independent liquor stores near you and I encourage you to seek them out and support a local business instead of the big chains.
And finally, of course, there is the Wine Watchmaker. I have selected some of the best value back vintage wines in Australia at very reasonable prices that would be suitable for mid-week quaffers as well as more premium wines, some from our own cellar, for special events. Buy ahead and you won’t have to dash out to a Bottle-o owned by a big chain. Please like and follow us on Facebook for all of the latest specials.
Cheers,
Antony.
