Oak & Young Opens in Fairfield, Ready to Challenge Your Preconceptions About Tap Wine

What makes a wine store ethical? For Oak & Young’s owners, brothers Matty and Andrew De Angelis, it’s about selling and sharing wine they like to say has a “heartbeat”.

“It has a winemaker supplying the wine and a wine family behind it working hard,” Andrew says. “They’re either working biodynamically, organically or they’re working sustainably themselves, by being in the vineyard or through [using] renewable energy.”

The wine it serves is only part of what sets Oak & Young apart. Arguably more striking is how the De Angelises are serving it. The brothers are behind Tap, a company that supplies tapped wine to bars and restaurants. Now they’re applying that idea to retail, setting up 20 taps in Oak & Young’s cosy Fairfield store, filling cool, minimalistic Sarah Royce -designed bottles with quality vino. Punters can take home their first bottle for $23 and then return for $19 refills.

They’re not the first to do this – Glou opened in Collingwood last year with a similar concept, for example. But vino from a tap is still widely considered the domain of a high-volume pub rather than an elevated local wine store. And there are intrinsic sustainability advantages, the De Angelises’ stainless steel keg system cutting out the need for bottles, cork and cardboard.

“We wanted to bring great quality wine to our customers while concentrating on the impact we have on our environment,” Andrew says. “Sustainability can be a bit of a loose word. Our focus is to create a circular economy – from the moment the kegs are filled and recycled, to the refillable bottle system we have.”

There’s an impressive selection of Italian wine on tap, including a rosé and sangiovese from Tuscany and a prosecco from Veneto. There’s also pinot noir and chardonnay from Rob Hall in the Yarra Valley, and a shiraz produced by Chalmers Wines. Former Young Gun of Wine winner Rob Mack is supplying a prosecco-based pét-nat, and there’s an orange wine by Fin that’s proving popular with Fairfield locals.

“Wine loves being around wine – it’s a living organism,” Andrew says. “So being in a big format, it’s always going to stay and live a little better.”

Elsewhere in-store there’s fancy boxed wine from Hey Tomorrow, perfect for your next dinner party – and yes, there’s a classy selection of bottled wine if you like to keep it old school.

Oak & Young
107 Station Street, Fairfield

Hours:
Tue to Sat 11am–8pm

oakandyoung.com.au
instagram.com/oakandyoungwine