Fashion

Let The Drinks Come To You With Sydney’s Best Booze Delivery

By Urban List Writers
16th Jun 2021

natural wine bottles

Drinks delivered to your doorstep. What a wonderful concept. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it's become a bit of a necessity amid the COVID-19 crisis, but we're here to tell if you if your bar cart is running dry in these strange times, Sydney has plenty of options to top you up.  

Whether you enjoy craft beer, natural wine, or gin, we've dug up the very best booze delivery and booze subscriptions on offer in Sydney.

These regular deliveries and one-off drop-offs will encourage you to experiment and expand your know-how by curating a selection of delicious drinks and—the best part—sending them directly to your doorstep.

Here are the best alcohol delivery services and subscriptions in Sydney.

Bagnum

Sydney, make way for Bagnum—a collab between local legends Built To Spill and Urban List. Think easy-to-pour bagged wine that is every bit classic as it is boujee. Each Bagnum holds a whopping 1.5L of juicy Aussie wine from Sparrow & Vine with three wine varietals on offer: a Bagnum Sangiovese Rosé, a citrusy Semillon Bagnum (white) and a Nero D’Avola Bagnum (red). Your Bagnum will also come packaged in an eco-friendly and fast-chilling AstraPouch—which has an 80 per cent lower carbon footprint than its typical glass iteration. It even has a smart nozzle that activates just by the tap of your finger (read: no leaks) and makes sure your Bagnum stays fresher for longer—sans cork contamination and potential oxidation. 

The limited-run Bagnum range can be purchased through Built To Spill at $44 a pop. Sydneysiders can score same-day delivery (if you live within 10km of Marrickville) if ordered by 12pm AEST between Monday and Sunday. Order yours here.

P&V Liquor

Did you know that one of Sydney’s most talked about natural vino hubs has a subscription service? For $150 a month, you can have a selection of six bottles delivered to your door on the first Friday of every month. The kicker? Rootstock co-founder, wine judge, writer and all-round vino extraordinaire Mike Bennie handpicks the pack so your natural wine dreams will definitely come true.

And because let's face it, we'll definitely need more wine in these trying house-bound times, P&V has an online store where you can shop their full range of tasty wine, which can then be shipped direct to your door. Spend over $100 and order before 12pm Monday - Friday and P&V will deliver your booze the very next day. Suss it all out here

DRNKS

The fact that DRNKS does a same-day wine drop-off has to be the silver lining in lockdown—or any time for that matter. We've been big-time fans of all things DRNKS since they started peddling natural, sustainable, biodynamic, and organic wines via the Internet back in 2014. Peruse their OG digital bottlo for a tasty library of seriously good wines sourced from family-owned labels and is made with limited to no additives. These guys also sell beers, bottled cocktails, cider, rare mezcal, non-alcoholic drinks, spirits and sake, olive oil, pasta, and more. 

DRNKS delivers all over Australia. Same-day delivery is available if you order before 2pm Monday - Saturday and if you live within 15km of the Sydney CBD. The cutoff is extended to 6pm if you live in the Inner West or the East. More details and available suburbs are here.

Need your booze cold and fast? Check out DRNKS' two-hour or less "Pronto" delivery

Not Wasted

Whether you’re a full-blown wine buff or if the only wine question you feel qualified to answer is: red or white, Not Wasted is promoting sustainable wine-making practices and is well worth a look. Not Wasted is an online bottlo that offers a curated selection of natural wines and for us lucky Sydney kids that means same-day delivery of said wine. 

Highlights include Aussie faves, Latto Vino and Si Vintners, and a whole host of international labels guaranteed to impress even the fanciest friend at your dinner party. The website is easy to navigate and you can choose wines from specific winemakers or view selections based on the occasion, colour, or mood. Check it out here

The Drink Hive

This artisanal bottle shop in Rosebery is one-of-a-kind. With sustainability front of mind, they’re committed to reducing waste, which is why you should take your old bottles down and fill ‘er up with the shop's impressive refilling stations.

The Drink Hive is the brainchild of industry pros, Mal Higgs and Gregoire Bertaud, who are pretty excited to deliver quality alcohol at an affordable price. In addition to those genius refilling stations, this is also the place where you’ll find some lesser-known or hard-to-find booze, from wine through to local beers and delicious spirits for your bar cart too. And yes, they do same-day delivery in Sydney too. Check it out here

Sometimes Always

From Adelaide's Alpha Box & Dice crew, Sometimes Always is a stunning boutique bottleshop whose dreamy and artistic aesthetic is as much a part of the shopping experience as their interesting edit of wines. Navigate through style, colour, country, region as you please, with each drop labelled with handy notes like "low-fi", "natural", "progressive", and "traditional". With same-day dispatch and free shipping all around Australia, Sometimes Always is well worth a look. Check it out here

The Borough Box

Sometimes there truly is a silver lining to a crisis. In this case, it's the fact that an ex-Noma sommelier (yes, Noma—the coveted René Redzepi restaurant) has launched a brand new wine subscription for Sydney. James Audas, who also worked as the somm at Silvereye, typically sold natural wine wholesale to restaurants alongside business partner Tom Sheer (former Love Tilly Divine and Oscillate Wildly sommelier). With COVID-19 in full swing, Audas and Sheer have launched The Borough Box. It involves a finely curated selection of six hard-to-find natural, organic and biodynamic wines from Australia and all around the world, delivered to your door on the first Monday of the month. Suss it out here

Jimmy Brings

If it's lightning-fast booze delivery you're after, Jimmy Brings is your new best mate. Maybe your stocks have diminished mid-Zoom party, maybe it's 5pm on a Friday and you've just realised there are zero weekend beers in the house. Jimmy Brings promises to drop off your cold drinks in under 30 minutes, and they have a big range of booze, snacks and even ice to choose from too. 

Prep for your espresso martinis, Negronis, and G&T's with their stacked library of spirits, liqueur, and mixers; shop classic beers like VB and XXXX, get crafty with brews from the likes of White Rabbit, Mountain Goat, or Bent Spoke, or keep it clean with Jimmy's selection of natural and organic wines. Check it out here

Vivino

Most of us will know Vivino as "the wine app". Using image recognition tech, it allows you to snap a picture of a bottle of wine and get a detailed description of the wine, its estimated retail price, a star rating and user reviews and tasting notes. Basically, it's the Shazam for wine. But did you also know you can shop an enormous range of wines from Vivino? It's the world's largest online wine marketplace, and it uses all those user reviews and tasting notes to deliver personalised wine recommendations. You can shop by price range, region, food pairing, grapes and a regularly updated list of trending wines in Aus. Check it out

The Bottle.Shop

If you've visited the likes of Fred's, Bert's, or Totti's—you'll know Sydney's hospitality juggernaut Merivale and its master sommeliers are good (like very good) at wine. If staying in or hosting dinner at home is more your vibe this week, you'll want to check out The Bottle.Shop, a curated selection of wine pieced together by Merivale's sommeliers. A shopfront has existed at The Ivy complex for a few years but in 2019 The Bottle.Shop dropped a digital shop packed with recommendations and subscription boxes to suit a huge range of tastes and budgets. 

Wines here are tagged up with tasting notes, fun facts, food pairings (cured meat, BBQ, pizza), and helpful hints (drink with good company). Sommeliers Franck Moreau MS and Adrian Filiuta MS have really done the hard work for you—shop by occasions like "Weeknight Wine", "Party Starters", "Picnic Wine" and "Au Naturale" for all the natural wine fans out there. Subscriptions include boxes of 3, 6, or 12 covering great picks that won't break the bank, something a little special, and a splurge box for the best of the bunch. Check it out here

Handpicked Wines

You know what goes really well with wine? Cheese. And charcuterie. Here to save the day on all three fronts is Handpicked Wines. Their full-range of delicious wines is available to order online (that's everything from Chardonnay to Bordeaux, rosé, Nebbiolo and prosecco), as well as a big range of cheeses in 100 - 200g sizes and cured meats like sopressa Vincentina and smoked wagyu beef. There's even a selection of caviar and condiments if you're really keen to amp up your at-home cheese board game. In response to COVID-19, Handpicked have also broadened their delivery area to take in a 25km radius around their Chippendale cellar door. Check it out here

Hello Drinks

Hello Drinks is all about keeping the party vibes alive—with a little bit of Irish hospitality thrown in the mix. Yes, Irish ex-pat JP Tucker launched his booze delivery concept in 2016 after finding it was next to impossible to get alcohol delivery on a Saturday and delivered faster than a four-day turnaround. With an epic range of affordable basics (beer, wine, spirits, mixers, whisky, and more) Hello Drinks will get your booze to you fast. They also have a range of cocktail-making essentials, glassware, and merch on offer. More is here

Gin Society

Gin Society is a membership program that not only includes a bi-monthly delivery of gin, but also cocktail recipes, articles and content, event invitations, and a luxe gift for first-time subscribers, which includes a crystal glass, cocktail spoon, jigger, and strainer. Membership costs $95, paid every two months coinciding with the delivery of a premium bottle of gin from a small-batch distillery.

Don’t expect Hendrix or Bombay Sapphire to be sent your way, you’re going to be sent artisanal creations like Rivo foraged gin from Lake Como (wow) and Sheep Whey Gin made from Tasmanian native botanicals. Check it out

Whisky Loot

What Gin Society is to gin, Whisky Loot is to whiskey. In short, it’s all about education. For $59 a month or quarter, depending on your preference, you receive three 60ml tasting bottles of premium whiskey, tasting notes and a journal to start your notes. You can pick from a few types or regions, for instance, there’s the American Box or the Traditionalist Box, to name two. Each box is then themed, for example, "Classic Summer Whiskies" or "Intro to Bourbon Casks". Sign up here

Beer Cartel

If you’re into beer, you might have already heard of Beer Cartel. Operating since 2009, it claims to be Australia’s longest-running craft beer delivery and subscription service, which—when put next to their reviews—suggests this is a crew who knows their shit and isn’t about fads.

Beer Cartel offers local and international craft beers with packs catered to “starters” ($35 x six), “enthusiasts” ($60 x 12), and "crowd pleasers" ($110 x 24), as well as a huge range of single cans and bottles, six-packs and cases. As for which crafties are on offer, stand-outs include Wildflower sour beers and wild ale from Marrickville in Sydney, KAIJU! and Moon Dog from Melbourne, and Pirate Life from Adelaide. Check out the full collection here

Good Pair Days

Built for the Netflix generation, Good Pair Days is all about discovering tasty, affordable wine from the comfort of your own lounge room. Through powerful (read: fun) personalisation tech (yes, it's a quiz), you'll be delivered new wines you're guaranteed to love, minus all the weird wine jargon. The packaging and tasting notes are super cute (and sustainable), so why not have a try here. They've also just intro'd same-day delivery for Sydney Metro areas. 

Just Wines

If you're a big-time fan of wines from Australia and New Zealand (who isn't, really), Just Wines boasts one of the largest online collections. The Sydney-based start-up kicked off back in 2012 with the aim of supporting Aussie wineries, big or small, to give them a fair chance to sell their produce all over the country. There's a 100% money-back guarantee on your purchases as well as daily deals and offers, quick dispatch, and contact-free delivery. Find more info and all the wines here

Got a booze delivery service helping Sydney sip their way through the latest lockdown? Get in touch with us

Image credit: DRNKS

Editor's note: Urban List editors independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. Urban List has affiliate partnerships, so we get revenue from your purchase.

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