Rose Bay North Cellars

Lovely bottle shop with helpful and knowledgeable owner.
There are also some interesting bottles on display, if you take a walk around. For example, a 1991 Wynns Coonawarra (how do you spell that? I always have to Google it) for something like $ 50. Aside from it being much older than what is usually on offer yet still totally affordable, this was the second of the two years that «made» the global reputation of Australian wine. Another find was two bottles of Australian «port» from 1976 and 1979 for a total of $ 120. At the other end, we had a nice conversation about Australian sparkling wines and I went with his recommendation, which was appreciated by the whole family. A bulk deal on champagne the next day saw me take the card out yet again…
If you dig you find plenty of gems like this. We came back over and over in the two weeks we stayed in Vaucluse. This is exactly what I want in a bottle shop: loads of less well known, older gems, affordable yet interesting experiments to be tried regularly. Are some going to be duds, well, that’s the name of the game with older wine, over 1 in 10 will be corked, others will be past their prime, but you won’t know unless you try and the hope for the lottery ticket of a great wine that somehow escaped the critics and the market is 90% of the fun. Maybe that’s why most bottle shops eschew selling wines older than about 5 – 10 years, except for unaffordable great Henschkes or the Romanee Conti and Latour there in case a Russian billionaire is in town.
My only regret is not asking the owner more about his shop, I’m sure the history must be interesting.