Sydney, Australia - Wine bar / Wine-y Restaurant Recommendations?

I will find myself in Sydney later this year, thought I’d check in and see if there is anything in particular I should try not to miss while I’m there. Aiming to head up to Hunter for a couple days but mostly based around central Sydney…

Fix St James is always a good bet. http://www.fixstjames.com.au/

The problem with most wine bars is they do everything except Australian wines (or very little). Wine Odyssey in the Rocks does a lot of Aussie, although I get the feeling it is aimed more at the starry eyed tourist droves. (not even sure if it is still open to be honest)

Love Tilly DeVine and Wine Library are good quirky options although you’ll be more likely to find Jura and obscure Italian varieties in them. They do good selections of boutique Aussie wines and both are worth seeking out. They are casual places with tapas type food, and are more about the wine.

Fine Dining restaurant wise there is Rockpool which has an extensive wine list.
http://www.rockpool.com/rockpoolsydney/

Cool, thanks! Will have a look at those.

I was at Wine Odyessy on the Rock in Feb. It was still there and going strong. Great place to try some exceptional Aussie wines by the glass, and then go next door and buy them by the bottle if you like. It is touristy, but I found some very good deals there. Easy to find and get to, just up the Rock from the main cruise ship terminal.

Bentley Restaurant and Bar is very good.

So I did Sydney for a week. Spent a couple days in Hunter which was pretty cool, probably another topic for another time.

It is the holiday season, mostly sunny days but a couple rainy ones which was a little annoying but running around in shorts and t-shirts is pretty cool for Christmas.

Annoyingly, most of these places were closed over many of the holidays. Not a huge surprise, what is annoying is that you can’t actually tell. They don’t update their websites or the phone messages telling you the opening hours. Went to Fix St. James and missed it by a day. Wine Library and Love Tilly Devine never picked up the phone and didn’t feel like going out that far without knowing they were open.

Wine Odyssey was cool, lots of good Australian (and only Australian) wines to try by the taste, half glass, full glass. I ended up going twice (since Fix St. James was closed on xmas eve). First time was nice, just tried a few things, got some nibbles. Second time the manager was there (Nathan) who was great to talk to while we tried various things. We even got in on some changeover wines from the Enomatics where he had a bit left in a few bottles and let us try most of them. Some really nice ones, The Relic from The Standish (2006) was the standout, and most expensive it seemed. Yes, more tourists than locals but a good selection and good location.

Couple pics here from Wine Odyssey:

We did a lunch at Rockpool. I wasn’t able to get in for dinner. Also, unfortunately, we have been waking up really late so even our late-ish lunch weren’t massively hungry. Nice place, good food, great wine list. Just did a couple by the glass… from the little trolley here…

Thanks for the tips! Will probably aim to get down here again sometime in the next year or so and hit the other places and some more Hunter!