Wine 1160

The Verdict

There’s some interesting little things happening on High St, Armadale. It’s not just for bridal dresses, fishing tackle and overpriced handbags anymore.

Exhibit A: Wine 1160. A cosy new wine bar from hospo pro, Prabir Majumdar.

This place isn’t your typical wine bar. For one thing, there’s no bar—just a metal-topped bench counter running up against the wall, like you’d find in the classier penthouse apartments (we’re guessing—we’ve never been in a classy penthouse apartment).

It goes with Prabir’s vision for the place: a bar that feels like your home. A home decked out in old-school 70s mustard, flashy mod furniture, scattered greenery, warm downlights and a higgledy-piggeldy backyard wine garden.

It doesn’t take long to spot the wine in here either. Prabir worked closely with wine consultant Joshua Elias (not a bad job, that) to build a 200-bottle cellar. We don’t have time to run through all the drops—this would be a much longer review—but you can expect local vino from South Australia, NSW, rural Victoria and Western Australia, plus well-travelled plonk from Pfalz, Alsace, the Loire Valley, New Zealand and Burgundy.

When the wine’s this good, the food’s really just there not to overshadow what’s in your glass, and head chef Jasmin Lefers has done a good job of matching food to particular vino varieties.

Each dish on the menu actually comes with a little wine suggestion (a nice touch). Pair smoked bream and potato salad with a Col Fondo Prosecco, or school prawns with Kaffir lime aioli with a cheeky Portuguese Alvarinho. Expect grazing plates, small nibbles, salty-sweet bites and a snog of Crème Brûleé for afters.

If you’re big on Melbourne wine bars, or just want to learn what’s going on inside your glass, this is a pretty good place to start. Bottoms up! 

Image credit: Jenna Fahey-White