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The sun is shining. The music is pumping. And the wine is flowing at P&V Wine & Liquor Merchants, one of the best places to spend a Saturday arvo in Sydney if you want to check the pulse of Paddington. The bar is full of locals who might have shopped the sales on Oxford Street, browsed the racks for a sparkly jumpsuit at Cleveland on Oxford, or ogled the latest exhibition at Martin Browne Contemporary.
P&V is housed in one of many storied terrace houses that dot this hip strip in a suburb dating back to the city’s early Victorian times. For those who don’t know, the slang expression ‘full of piss and vinegar’, means someone full of energy or excitement. And that seems to be the prevailing attitude among both staff and customers at P&V (yes, it stands for Piss & Vinegar) in Paddington.
P&V aims to be a one-stop shop for craft brews, small-scale spirits and wine and, unlike the OG Newtown outlet, is both a bottle shop and wine bar. Upstairs, you’ll also find charming French bistro Porcine, a separate entity that is convenient for those who want to BYO bottle from the wine shop downstairs. P&V is run by Rootstock festival co-founder and wine writer Mike Bennie and Lou Dowling, longtime bar manager at Mary’s Newtown and The Unicorn. (Mary’s co-founders Kenny Graham and Jake Smyth are also stakeholders in the venture.)
In a previous life, the P&V space was occupied by Mickey’s, a milk bar popular with pimply teens for its milkshakes and sundaes. Pour a bit of piss and vinegar onto that concept and you have, in its place, a proper wine bar for grown-ups. Although Bennie, Dowling and the bar barons behind P&V Merchants in Newtown have done much for the natural wine movement mainstream in Australia, there’s zero wine wankery here.
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Sure, there are punters inhaling the aromas of various varietals and taking careful sips. But they are not being posers; they’re here to just chill and enjoy and maybe learn a thing or two about all things that are crafty, or have a bit of funk and fizz.
The wines laid out on P&V’s daily wine list include a fun fizz, fresh white, easy orange, party pink, friendly red and rare bird. Between us, we opt for a fresh white (Suau Blanc 2022 from Bordeaux), an easy orange (Amo Vino Ramato Pinot Grigio 2023 from the Adelaide Hills), and friendly red (2023 Collines Pinot Noir from the Adelaide Hills).
The biodynamic Suau Blanc is tart and tangy and pairs nicely with a dish of fava beans and braised chicory, one of many introduced by head chef Leila Khazma (ex-Where’s Nick, Marrickville) who draws on her Egyptian-Lebanese heritage for inspiration. The only thing worth grumbling about was the 40-minute wait for the Thoroughbred sourdough to arrive so we could dredge through the dip and scoop up the greens. It is, however, easy to forgive this small oversight given how charming and convivial P&V is and how much the group has contributed to the hospitality industry in Sydney and beyond. That and the fact it happened to be Leila’s first weekend on the job and they were down one staff member.
(A subsequent visit found the wine bar fully staffed and better equipped to cope; this is despite the fact every table in the courtyard and bottle shop was taken. That’s because P&V is exactly the kind of place you want to keep returning to.)
Our civilised late-afternoon lunch continues with the aforementioned friendly red that pairs well with a plate of beef carpaccio served in a pond of red harissa with radishes that offer a cool crunch and contrast to the spiced raw beef. A small bowl of veal and pork polpette with stem agrodolce is hearty and satisfying with a great depth of flavour, while the Porcine terrine served with pickles, crostini and mustard epitomises the kind of small plates the wine bar does so well.
Locals rightly view P&V as an extension of their living rooms.
Next time we’re going to opt for the rare bird and assign ourselves to surrendering the rest of the afternoon away. We might opt to sit in the pretty courtyard under the espaliered awning of leaves that lets the light wink through. Or pick out a pet nat from the bottle-o and drink it at home. Regardless, one thing’s for sure: this Oxford Street haunt is a Sydney stalwart for a reason.
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