Melbourne’s Best Wine Bars…For Food

Wine and food are one of those timeless couples that bring out the best in one another.

Pairing the right red to your roast dinner or the right white to your risotto can unlock a whole other level of flavours and aromas. And let’s face it, sipping and swilling wine is hungry work. Forget dry arancini balls and boring cheddar — there’s quite the selection of wine bars in Melbourne that treat food and wine with equal amounts of love.

Pragmatic name, fancy food: The City Wine Shop sells wine. I know, right? Shocking. Stacked like books in a library, waiters glide along the wine racks, grabbing bottles for patrons who know their malbecs from their merlots. It’s all Euro-chic dark wood panelling and mood lighting here. The food continues the traditional European focus, with simple classics such as spaghetti with meatballs and tuna niçoise on the regular rotation. With pork and duck terrine, jamon and saganaki with balsamic vinegar-poached wild figs also on offer, you can nibble like nobles all night long.

Que syrah: Syracuse is in the heart of Melbourne’s finance district, or ‘fancy district’. This distinguished restaurant and wine bar takes its food seriously. But behind every good dish, there’s a great, full-bodied red, a crisp and buttery chardonnay, a refreshingly fruity rosé. Philippa Sibley, restaurateur extraordinaire and renowned cooking queen, has been leading the Syracuse kitchen since 2016. With over 500 wines to choose from, including a decent by-the-glass selection, even the most discerning of palates will be satisfied.

Happy days: Joanie’s Baretto is your local gem in up-and-coming-neighbourhood-but-houses-are-already-a-million-dollars-oh-God-why Thornbury. ‘Cute’ is the best word to describe this vino and aperitivo-focused venue. Grab a seat in the undercover courtyard out back, order yourself a glass of prosecco and peruse the blackboard specials – it’s an Italian roulette of tasty treats. Maybe you’ll get lucky and truffled salami will be on offer. Winner winner salami dinner.

Hey diddle diddle: The cow jumped over the moon, realised it was made of cheese, thought, “Hey, wine and cheese go great together, I should open a fromagerie bar,” and did just that. Or something along those lines. At Milk The Cow Carlton and St Kilda, feast your eyes on all the exquisite cheeses and strap yourself in for a wine, beer, sake, cognac or whiskey flight.

On cloud nine: Andrew O’Connell now owns half of Melbourne’s high-end restaurants. Next, he’s gunning for keys to the city. Cumulus is one of his original fine dining institutions. But taking it down just a notch upstairs, is Cumulus Up – an intimate wine bar with shared plates that might result in a few instances of fork wars. All your poor glass of 2015 Bannockburn pinot noir can do is watch, as the cutlery begins to clash over the Macedon Ranges duck breast, resting beneath the ominously red sour and blood cherry. All’s fair in love and war.

Kiwi invasion: Damn, those Kiwis know how to cook. The duo behind Carlton’s Town Mouse opened Embla in late 2015 – a wine bar that serves unique wines and elegant dishes in a relaxed, comfy setting. The menu changes according to seasonality and is designed around the wines on offer. Think dishes like castelfranco, with pumpkin seeds and bergamot – a textural delight with earl grey undertones. The menu and extensive wine list will keep even the most frequent of visitors on their toes.

Sip easy: There’s something deeply relaxing about sipping on a few glasses of European red as natural light begins to be replaced by the glow of incandescents. At Prohibition Food and Wine in Camberwell, settle into a leather bench seat and order yourself a few morsels. Get the confit garlic doughnuts. Why? Because they’re savoury doughnuts with garlic and pecorino and that’s all you need to know.