Baia di Vino Brings Mediterranean Dining and a 200-Bottle Strong Wine List to Sandringham

There’s something harmonious about eating seafood while looking out over the ocean. And at newly opened Baia di Vino in Sandringham, you can do this over a glass of Huber Alte Reben chardonnay from old low-yield vines in the foothills of Germany’s Black Forest, or maybe a soave from a vineyard on the slopes of a dormant Veronese volcano.

The seaside eatery is the second project for the team behind Malvern’s Riserva. Frank Ciorciari, Gian Chiaravalle and chef Dino Mohsin have brought in Anthony Silvestre (Kettle Black), and sommelier Vivian Man (ex-Rockpool).

They worked closely with the team at Samantha Eades Design (Carlton Wine Room, Hawker Hall, Mr Miyagi) to transform the former tapas bar into the light-filled space it is now. Sit up at the marble counter and peruse the extensive aperitivi and digestivi collection behind the bar, or settle into a rattan Bentwood chair or tan leather banquette to take in the bay. Exposed wooden beams overhead come recycled from a Tasmanian pier.

Inspired by Ciorciari’s holidays to the south of France and the Italian coast, the menu and wine list have a Mediterranean influence with global accents. “My parents are Italian. I was brought up with entertaining at home,” Ciorciari says. “Friends would come over, there’d be a drink, nibbles come out.”

Tuna tartare arrives with pickled daikon and a yuzu emulsion, served in a betel leaf. Eat it like san choy bow. Creamy burrata comes with woodfire-roasted capsicum. Bright red beetroot “ravioli” is not pasta but fine slices of earthy beetroot sandwiching Yarra Valley Dairy goat’s cheese, then topped with burnt butter, sage and hazelnuts.

The brodetto di pesce is a fish stew with a tomato base, traditional to coastal Abruzzo and Marche in Italy. Baia di Vino’s version is a light prawn broth with scampi, king prawns, Cloudy Bay clams, Port Arlington mussels, scallops and squid. The woodfired oven comes into play for daily whole fish specials – which today is flounder, its skin almost caramelised in its crispness.

Desserts lean squarely towards France, with Mohsin taking on a few classics. Crème caramel quivers in a light caramel. It’s best shared so you can also order the mille-feuille (layered pastry) with mascarpone and strawberries.

Most of the wine list is European, although local wines also feature. Choose from almost 200 wines by the bottle and 18 by the glass. The Coravin preserver (a needle and gas system that drills through the cork to reach the wine without opening the bottle) means you can access a few special drops by the glass, too. One, a barbera from a winery in northern Italy, is by father-and-son team Roberto and Luca Voerzio. They tend each of their vines themselves, changing the compost according to need and working without chemical fertiliser. The result is an opulent red with earthy and slightly truffled notes.

Baia di Vino
1 Melrose Street, Sandringham
03 9052 4499

Hours:
Mon & Tue 5pm–11.30pm
Wed to Sun 12pm–11.30pm

baiadivino.com.au