Mitchell Harris Wine Bar

Wine maker John Harris always had the skills to make great wine. But what he didn’t have was a physical space from which to sell it. That was until he found a sprawling, 1870s-built building on Doveton Street, and got to work repurposing it as an urban cellar door for his Mitchell Harris wine label.

The building began as a coach house, before becoming a tent-repair shop and a later a motor-repair business. Light-filled and resplendent in exposed brick, it’s become a firm favourite with the after-work crowd and a fantastic setting to showcase Harris’s award-winning boutique wines.

Using vineyards in the Macedon Ranges and the Pyrenees, pinor noir, chardonnay and rosé are Mitchell Harris’s flagship wines, and their bottle-fermented sauvignon blanc is also a winner. The bar offers a full takeaway service too, so you can pick up a bottle to go.

Chef Jeremy Duxbury (ex-Corner Store and Stokehouse) heads up a kitchen that produces an eclectic and diverse menu, designed to be shared and paired with the wines.

A grazing board has olives, house-made pickles, hazelnut dukkah and local charcuterie with warm bread, but if you’re not into sharing and need something more substantial, go for the braised spiced lamb quesadilla, with Fontinella cheese and tomatillo salsa.

Tastings run from midday through to the late afternoon most days, before things go full bar mode. At sunset lemony light streams in through the front windows, so nab a spot near there if you can.