The Best Wine Bars In Sydney Right Now

We're blessed in Sydney—our streets are packed with wine bars to stop by for a glass (before inevitably staying for a bottle). Some offer nibbles to enjoy alongside your tipple of choice, while others sway into restaurant territory with multi-course menus for you to pair with personalised picks.

Whether you’re pining for a pinot or in need of a natty, Sydney’s best wine bars have got you covered—here's where to find them.

 

Caravin Deux

46 Llankelly Place, Potts Point

Image credit: Caravin Deux | Instagram

Just a few streets away from compact, two-level French restaurant and wine bar Caravin, owners Greg Bampton, Phil Stenvall and Emily Nguyen have opened a second iteration: Caravin Deux. Taking over the teeny tiny alleyway space that previously housed Tacos Tacos Tacos, Caravin Deux has revised the traditional bistro format of its predecessor—here, seafood takes the focus, served as small plates and paired with an extensive list of natural wines.

For what's in your glass, we'll leave it up to taste (as every bottle more than delivers)—but considering the low-lit, moody lighting, neighbourhood energy and loud disco music blasting over the speakers, you'll probably find yourself leaning towards a chilled red or orange wine. 

Insider Intel

• If you are lucky enough to walk in and secure a table, you'd be amiss not to park up for the evening—seating here is few and far between, and you may even have to shuffle up and share a table with the other guests.

Doom Juice Cellar Door

66/6 Chalder Avenue, Marrickville

Image credit: Doom Juice | Supplied

Doom Juice co-founders Zac Godbolt and Sebastian Keys have finally opened their Cellar Door in a long-term home, taking over the former Poor Toms Gin Distillery site at 66/6 Chalder Avenue, Marrickville — right in the heart of the Ale Trail. The new address sits next door to Primary Espresso and across from Ester Distilling, placing it squarely within one of Sydney’s most concentrated drinking pockets. 

On the drinks front, the headline is straightforward: every Doom Juice wine is available by the glass and bottle, spanning their full range of natural reds, whites and new releases. Beyond the grape, the offering expands into beer taps pouring Reschs, Grifter Pale and Young Henrys cider, alongside a tight list of non-alc options including Heaps Normal and Doom Juice’s own ZZVINO.

Insider Intel

• In a hyper-local move, the team has also partnered with Ester Distilling on an exclusive Ester x Doom Juice vermouth, made using their Shiraz/Grenache chilled red. 

Effie's

281 Sydney Road, Balgowlah

Image credit: Effie's | Instagram

Tucked away on a suburban street corner just outside of Manly's hustle and bustle is Effie's—a cafe-slash-wine-bar from the brains behind Noon, Sunset Sabi, Busta and Chica Bonita. 

By day, Effie’s runs as a refined all-day café serving excellent coffee and matcha, with a handy takeaway window for quick stops and a breakfast menu built around crowd favourites done properly. As the afternoon rolls in, the space shifts into Effie’s Nights (now running Thursday through Saturday) where natural wines curated by Winona Wine take centre stage. The evening offering leans snack-forward and shareable, with olives, cheeses, charcuterie and seasonal plates designed to pair easily with a glass (or two).

Insider Intel

• There's also a killer standing cocktail happy hour, with $6 mini cocktails and $10 margs. 

Paradise

Shop 6C, 11 Ward Avenue, Potts Point

Image credit: 10 William Street | Instagram

Nothing beats curbside people watching over a glass of quality orange—and if there's anywhere to head that will make you feel like a tried and true local, Paradise in Potts Point is the spot. With no insta, website, or phone to call in, and a menu scrawled on a chalkboard, this corner wine bar by the Fratelli Paradiso and 10 William Street team is a great shout for impressing a date (plus you can pull the classic "I know a spot").

Insider Intel

• Be warned—you might have to fight for a table, but the snacky share plates and chilled red are certainly worth it. 

Fred's Providore

109 Cronulla Street, Cronulla

Image credit: Fred’s Providore | Instagram

By day, Fred’s Providore is a Cronulla go-to for coffee, pastries and butcher-quality produce. By night, it transforms into Fred’s After Hours—a slick, Euro-leaning wine bar and bistro that’s fast become one of the Shire’s most exciting places to eat and drink.

The intimate 36-seat space swaps daytime bustle for warm lighting, leather banquettes, marble tables and exposed brick, channelling the feel of a Parisian neighbourhood bistro just steps from the Esplanade. The menu leans into refined, shareable plates, with standouts like cacio e pepe croquettes, tuna crudo with mango and finger lime, chicken cotoletta and rich Wagyu skewers.

Insider Intel

• The wine list spans Australia, New Zealand, France and Italy, with Champagne, cult bottles and by-the-glass gems designed to match the small-plate menu perfectly.

Sol Bread And Wine

168 Walker Street, North Sydney

Image credit: Sol Bread and Wine | Supplied

A true all-day destination, Sol Bread and Wine is a bakery and wine bar in North Sydney’s Walker Street precinct.

Inspired by the coffee-to-cocktails culture of Europe’s neighbourhood bars, Sol bread and wine’s 40-seat interior combines stone, timber and rich tonal colours, with the bread and cabinet display and a variety of seating on the ground floor, and a spiral staircase leading up to the bakery and sister venue Soluna.

Sol bread and wine transitions into a wine bar in the afternoon, with a dedicated food menu offering tinned seafood, sliced-to-order cured meats from sister venue Una, and a few European small plates like a chopped salad, gnudi in verjus and brown butter, and spatchcock on pilaf.

Insider intel

• Wines are approachable and easy-drinking, with plenty of minimal intervention bottles from Australia, France, Italy and Spain available by the glass, carafe and bottle.

The Wine Bar at The International

25 Martin Place, Sydney CBD

Image credit: The International | Website

Inside the multi-level drinking and dining destination, The Wine Bar at The International is a social hangout that spotlights global growers and vino trends. It offers a trio of spaces to sit and sip, including a piazza-style courtyard overlooking Martin Place, an intimate 40-seat wine bar and a slightly more spacious 60-seat dining room.

The kitchen slings bite-sized bits, small seafood dishes, Neapolitan pizzettes, filling pastas, steak frites, and dessert. 

Insider Intel

• The Wine Bar does an epic happy hour (Monday–Saturday, 4pm–6pm) with $5 pizza slices and $12 wines by the glass—check out our visit.

Lokal

104 Fitzroy Street, Surry Hills

Image credit: Lokal | Supplied

A neighbourhood wine bar with a big focus on community, Lokal is the passion project of two mates with some serious cred in the wine and food space. Expect a 55-bottle list (with 11 options by the glass) accompanied by coal-grilled plates and smaller snacks to enjoy in a breezy space that opens out to the street.

Insider Intel

• Feel like moving on to something a little harder? Try a cocktail using ingredients foraged from the surrounding streets, like bottle brush-infused tequila. 

The Shop & Wine Bar

78 Curlewis Street, Bondi Beach

Image credit: The Shop & Wine Bar | Website

Up from Bondi Beach on Curlewis Street, you’ll stumble upon a mustard hole in the wall, The Shop & Wine Bar. There’s lots of wine to get around, of course, including natural, fizzy, pet nat, white and red varieties, as well as breakfast plates, juicy burgers, chopped salads, and saucy pasta dishes with a weekday special.

Insider Intel

• It’s a true locals' joint, but tourists are also more than welcome.

Famelia

55 Enmore Road, Newtown

Image credit: Famelia | Supplied

Joining Newtown’s collective of specialised bars, Famelia is an Enmore Road wine bar and bottle shop that highlights female winemakers and wines that tell a story of place and producer.

With up to 12 wines open for trying by the glass and wine flights from $27, Famelia is a wine bar that encourages discovery; if you find a favourite on the shelves of the bottle shop, you can also open it to enjoy in store with $15 corkage, alongside a selection of cheese, charcuterie, and snacks.

Insider Intel

• Owner Amelia Birch has played in Sydney’s wine scene for some time, and is an expert resource for suggesting new and interesting wines, surprising the palate, or guiding you to a new favourite.

Poly

74-76 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills

Image credit: Poly | Supplied

At the front of the stunningly designed Paramount House Hotel you’ll find Poly, a walk-in wine bar owned by the crew behind Chippo’s Ester. No matter what night of the week, Poly is always pumping, and for good reason.

As General Manager Adam Hall explains, it's “a one-hundred-and-something strong list of natural wines from the best producers in Australia and around the world. A constantly rotating selection of almost 20 wines by the glass, and bar snacks by Mat Lindsay. And the best bit? Over half the seats saved for walk-ins every night!"

Insider Intel

• The food menu is short and pulled together for the humans that enjoy the finer things in life. 

Coogee Wine Room

Unit 1/222 Coogee Bay Road, Coogee

Image credit: Coogee Wine Room | Supplied

Coogee Wine Room seized the opportunity to become the seaside suburb’s first designated vino venue. Founded by locals Tom Hardwick and Michelle Morales, this Sydney wine bar is just a block from the beach, mixing Euro-chic with salty suburbia.

Paired with a Mediterranean-style menu and a breezy space that opens out to the street, this two-level wine bar offers something for any occasion that calls for a glass.

Insider Intel

• Over a 30-page menu, you’ll find over 500 wines, including 25 by the glass.

10 William St

10 William Street, Paddington

Image credit: 10 William Street | Supplied

This much-loved Sydney wine bar and restaurant might seem quaint on the outside, but don’t let the façade fool you. The second you step foot inside this spot off Oxford Street, prepare for a sensory overload, as if you've been transported directly to a local favourite in a European city. The always-bustling 10 William St has become a classic for wine buffs and foodies alike.

Insider Intel

• With an ever-evolving wine list, many bottles come and go, but one thing stays: the famous pretzel with whipped bottarga. Perfect salty wine food.

Love, Tilly Devine

91 Crown Lane, Darlinghurst

Image credit: Love, Tilly Devine | Bruno Stefani 

What Love, Tilly Devine might lack in space, it sure as hell makes up for in wine selection. This back-alley wine bar in Darlinghurst is a natural vino vulture’s dream. “The wine served at Tilly is minimal intervention wine, or what people call ‘natural wine’”, explains Love, Tilly Devine's Samuel Woods.

“For us, this is just wine that is free of chemicals and preservatives and wine that is fermented without the addition of yeasts. This results in wines with flavour more unique to the region, since the yeast is found naturally occurring on the skin of the grape and results in a wine which is better for you.” 

Insider Intel

• Named after Sydney’s historically infamous brothel Madame and militia boss, Tilly Devine, this cool laneway Sydney wine bar gives a nod to the past whilst saluting the neighbourhood it calls home.

Dear Sainte Eloise

5/29 Orwell Street, Potts Point

Image credit: Dear Sainte Eloise | Supplied

Matt Swieboda and Nathanial Hatwell must be doing something right because this is their third wine bar-slash-eatery that’s made this list. As with their other successful ventures, Dear Sainte Eloise devotes much of its focus to minimal intervention wines. 

“The list at Dear Sainte Éloise celebrates some of the great winemakers who have defined what wine can and should be”, says Swieboda.

“It’s also a list that gives a voice to the young and experimental winemakers of the present who will help define wine’s future. We believe that wine is an interconnected community full of sharing and learning, creating and drinking. The beautiful thing about drinking the wines of the world is that you become a part of that community simply by lifting a glass”, he says.

Bar Copains

67 Albion Street, Surry Hills

|mage credit: Bar Copains | Instagram

While Bar Copains is all about celebrating friendship and locals, there's nothing low-key about it; this is the classy and cool cousin of your run-of-the-mill neighbourhood wine bar.

Pair glasses of natural wines with the likes of whiting sandos, crispy eggplant showered with ricotta salata and tomato jam, and an amaro creme caramel (yep, that one you've seen on Instagram). 

Insider Intel

• This one definitely strays into restaurant territory, but with owners Nathan Sasi and Morgan McGlone boasting experience in venues including NOMAD, Belle's Hot Chicken and Adelaide's Leigh Street Wine Room, you can bet the food and wine at Bar Copains is a good time.

Main image credit: Effie's | Instagram

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