Dear Sainte Éloise

Wine can quickly become an expensive hobby. You may start out with cleanskins, but pretty soon a $15-a-bottle sauv blanc is your standard pour. From there the stakes only rise with every sip of creamy semillon or peppery shiraz. It’s all over: you’ll only want the good stuff from here on in.

Luckily, Matt Swieboda, Nathanial Hatwell and Tristan Blair, who own Dear Sainte Éloise, want to share the love, not hoard it. That’s why there are more than half a dozen wines by the bottle for under $60 at this all-class European-inflected wine bar on Llankelly Place. In a city where it’s easy to find single glasses well over the $20 mark, it’s astonishing to find a range at such an affordable price point. You’ve got a Gippsland rosé, a cabernet from the Margaret River, and a Canberran shiraz, and if you keep your eyes peeled there’s even a few that slide in under $50 – unheard of outside of frightening pub chardonnay.

But if you subscribe to the variety show method of drinking you won’t be disappointed with the by-the-glass options. The Dumarcher Zin Zin tastes of hot clay and dark cherries; the Rebholz Vom Rotliegenden riesling, grown in red soil, is a fandango of fruit and minerality; and the sparkling made especially for the bar by legendary natural winemakers, Jauma, is acidic and exciting, and only $55 for the whole bottle if you fall in love at first sip.

They just really love wine (which is why there is a written treatise in their menu on why riesling rules), but they also have a pro-food agenda. The menu changes on the reg, but there are always fat briny oysters, something pasta adjacent, a nice cut of meat and some veg-heavy snacks in between. And if they ever take the smoked mussels on charred bread in a savoury broth off the menu, we’ll have to write to the authorities.

Many people have tried to import the wine bars of Europe to Sydney, but Dear Sainte Éloise succeeded. Just try walking down this buzzy pocket of Kings Cross and resisting taking a seat at the laneway tables alongside designer pooches and their high-fashion humans. The fact that you don’t have to brace for financial impact only sweetens the deal. You know who to address your prayers of thanks to.

 Time Out Awards

2018Best Wine Bar