If you've been considering packing your bags and heading for the Adelaide Hills, just cool your jets a minute, because the wineries are coming to you. Right now in Sydney we've got more brewery bars that you can fling a growler at, and now we are about to clock up our third cellar door.
Redfern has the Cake Wines Cellar Door and you'll find the Urban Winery Sydney in St Peters. Now it's Chippendale's turn to get in on the vinous action: in early November the crew behind Handpicked Wines, a winery that uses grapes from across the world's wine regions, will throw open the doors on their Sydney cellar door in Kensington Street.
The Handpicked Cellar Door will join the buzzy strip that houses Automata, Spice Alley and Koi Dessert Bar, and it will be the place for an afternoon spent getting to know their range of 30 wines available by the glass and bottle. We're talking Chilean varieties, European wines and the best of the Antipodes, all of which you can take-away too. Planning a last minute party and no time to get to Dan Murphy's? They'll deliver your wine in only three hours in the Sydney metro area.
All this wine could get a worker bee into trouble, which is why there will also be cheese and charcuterie platters available care of Formaggi Ocello, and if wine isn't your speed there'll be local beers and ciders available too.
The space was formerly a brewery workshop and thanks to its expansive 300 square-metre floor-space there's room for pretty much anything they can think of. Educational pod with iPads? Got 'em. Tasting bar? Check. Experience bar for 30-minute guided tastings? Heaps of room. Plus they're stocking unfinished wines in tanks so that people can appreciate the full transformation from juice to wine.
Handpicked Wines Cellar Door, 50 Kensington Street Chippendale 2008. www.handpickedwines.com.au. Mon-Fri 11am-10pm; Sat-Sun 10am-10pm.
Photograph: Michael Briggs Photography
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