Melbourne’s East End welcomes a luxurious cellar door for Australian wine and food lovers alike.

A venture by one of Australia’s leading winemakers, Handpicked Wines, heads to Melbourne’s luxury precinct in the famed East End for a wine tasting experience like no other.

The Handpicked Wines Cellar Door will showcase over 50 different wines from Handpicked’s award-winning vineyards across Australia. Each wine is lovingly made by a team of passionate individuals, including chief winemaker Pete Dillon, with a focus on sustainable, minimal intervention vinification methods. 

The three-level space includes a premium wine and cheese shop, as well as a charcuterie and wine bar with ‘tasting pods’ scattered throughout. The second floor – otherwise known as the Experience Room – is dedicated to education where you can enjoy wine flights and chat with expert sommeliers and winemakers. And finally, the mezzanine level provides a great opportunity to sit, relax and reflect with a gorgeous view of the Cellar Door below.  

The Cellar Door’s interior is a delicate mix of exposed concrete beams and lightwood mimicking the duality of the wines and cheeses that Handpicked Wines provides, each with their own earthy, woody and fruity notes. The venue’s design, complete with operational wine barrels, exemplifies how Handpicked Wines were able to capture the charm and whimsy of viticulture and winemaking within this urban space.

Open seven days a week, the wine, cheese and charcuterie bar offers breakfast, lunch and supper. You have the choice of sitting inside among the wine barrels and raw charm of the venue, or perching at a table outside and taking in the view of Benson Walk, a modern take on one of Melbourne’s famous laneways.  

Handpicked Wines have curated their food offerings with a strong focus on regionality. The menu includes the best cheeses that both Australia, and the world, have to offer. With local Victorian producers such as Holy Goat and Meridith, beside imported French and Italian cheeses seamlessly unite to create a heavenly selection for guests. As for the charcuterie selection, it offers a similar mix of local and international produce including Schultz pancetta, smoked wagyu, prosciutto, jamon, and morcon-style cured meats all sliced to order.

Handpicked Wines was born in the Mornington Peninsula, established by Founder and managing director William Dong in 2001. The luxury winemakers now own vineyards in  the Yarra Valley, Tasmania and Barossa as well as their original location. With a number of their wines being local to Victorian vineyards, the Handpicked Wines Cellar Door feels right at home in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD. 

Handpicked Wines Cellar Door
(03) 7036 1088
80 Collins St, Melbourne, VIC 3000
Monday – Wednesday: 8am until 10pm
Thursday – Friday: 8am until 11pm
Saturday: 11am until 11pm
Sunday: 11am until 10pm
Website

Are you looking to take your wine tasting a little further? Check out these Luxury Winery Stays Around Australia. Or, visit the Handpicked Wines Cellar Door and stock up on the perfect cheeses, wines and charcuterie to share with friends at one of the 10 Best Picnic spots to View the Melbourne Skyline.

Feature Image: Photographed by Tony Mott. Image supplied.