The CBD's most disciplined retail-plus-corkage model, with an eight-hundred-bottle shelf and twenty years of careful buying behind it.
· Wine + cheese City Wine Shop on Spring Street has been pouring opposite Parliament House since 2008 and is the rare room that genuinely doubles as a wine merchant — drink any of the eight hundred bottles on the shelves for ten dollars corkage, or pick from the daily eighteen-glass by-the-glass list. The buying is the most diverse in central Melbourne, with serious Burgundy, Mosel and Etna sections supporting an Australian core.
Wine director Ben Hahn has run the cellar for over a decade and the price ladder remains stubbornly honest. Ranks fourth because the format is hybrid retail-and-bar but the cellar depth and shop-corkage model make it one of the city's better-value evenings.
For the full ranking, see our editorial round-up of the 10 best wine bars in Melbourne, the broader Melbourne wine bars guide, and our category index of wine bars worldwide.