We’ve all been there – that awkward moment when you rock up to the picnic with a boatload of cheese and realise you have no wine to go with it. Or when you crack open a school-night bottle of pinot and wish you had a wheel of Brie at the ready. Or when you’ve been left in charge of organising Friday work drinks and forgotten completely.
In order to prevent these high-stress emergencies, Chippendale’s urban cellar door, Handpicked Wines, has launched an online cheese shop to accompany the range of over 50 wines they produce and source from around the world. The current selection includes about 20 hard, soft, blue and washed rind cheeses, from nutty Parmigiano-Reggiano to lusciously creamy Brillat-Savarin laced with black truffle. For an all-out affair, you can add Italian and Spanish charcuterie, Russian caviar and the necessary extras like quince paste and lavosh to your shopping cart as well.
There’s no chance of analysis paralysis here – every product comes with detailed tasting notes and wine pairing suggestions, but if you want to let them do the choosing, there’s a $55 box that comes with a bottle of wine, two cheeses, crackers and a twin pack of Govino glasses for a perfect park sesh.
Delivery within a ten-kilometre radius of the CBD arrives within three hours, which means all you really have to do is click a couple of times and just try not to salivate too much before that doorbell rings.
Rather head out than order in? Check out one of Sydney's best wine bars.