MELBOURNE — Like its siblings (and neighbours) The European and The Melbourne Supper Club, City Wine Shop gets it right.

An attractive bar is covered in faded lime green tiles, sat atop it are a number of inviting sandwiches, beyond them a cabinet holds the days offerings by-the-glass.

Opposite a number of dark wooden boxes and crates hold bottles of both old and new world wines, whilst a fridge helps bottles of white, rose and bubbles keep cool. A wooden ladder completes the scene, ye olde bottle shoppe for modern Melbourne.

If you do not wish to perch at the bar there is a small porch out the front with a handful of tables, and this spills out onto the street, with a few more affording views of Parliament House and passing pedestrians. Otherwise, there is the big communal table out the back, in a plain but pleasant room decorated with posters of old world wine regions.

Each day there are up to twenty offerings by the glass, discerning selections that make for interesting drinking. If celebrating alone you’re in luck, they (unlike many) can pour you a spot of grand cru blanc de blanc to go with that plate of oysters. The less moneyed and celebratory can enjoy a fascinating marsanne roussanne viognier blend from the Yarra, Austrian grüner, Italian sangiovese, or a Coonawarra cab. It’s a generous list that covers the field — old and new worlds, straight and mixed varietals.

But the true boon of the wine shop is in its name itself. You can buy off the rack to take away here, but you can also grab any bottle and drink it in house (with most likely finer stemware and food than your place) for $15.

So you can try a bottle here, love it, and then grab one to take home either to drink that night, to acquire a few more years of bottle age, or to give to another. The standard $15 ‘mark up’ also means that this is a great place to spend a bit more than you usually would, it encourages adventurous drinking and for that the owners must be applauded.

The food is of the family ilk — generous, practical and vaguely nostalgic fare that always has the accompanying booze in mind. You can grab a seat at the bar and get into the ‘wine food’ menu — perhaps a plate of pickled onions and cheddar, some marinated sardines with salsa verde or a roll call of parfaits, pates, rilletes, terrines and cured meats.

There are meals to be had too — a blackboard lists flavourful, stout, booze-soaking numbers at a fair price. The classics here are best, chicken schnitzel comes with a house-made slaw that packs the requisite acid and crunch, whilst a risotto of roasted cauliflower, sage, peas and reggiano proved a foil to an average spring day.

City Wine Shop is a solid performer in a city glutted with ‘wine bars’.

Mon - Fri 7am - late
Sat - Sun 9am - late