Samuel Pepys

It’s a hard slog to import wine. You’ve got to travel to some awful country like Spain or France, schlep around horrible old vineyards, talk to crotchety vignerons and, worst of all, drink a lot of wine. Thankfully, Shane Barrett of Armada Imports, and one of the guys behind Spanish-leaning CBD bar Bomba, has done all the hard work for us.

Northcote bottle shop, Samuel Pepys stocks more than 400 wines and 200 varieties of spirit from small and independent producers, championing ethical, sustainable, biodynamic and low-intervention drops, such as Vale Da Capucha, a certified organic wine from the Lisbon coast, grown in kimmeridgian limestone only eight kilometers from the shore.

You’ll also find bottles from local winemakers such as Patrick Sullivan, Polperro and Jamsheed.

Designed in-house and built by local carpenter Donald Russell (who also shaped Bomba and Nomada), the wine racks are made of recycled blackbutt timber and reclaimed wood from Urban Salvage in Footscray.

Barrett has as many as 10 bottles on-pour for visitors to sample at any given time, so you can familiarise yourself with the different varieties before buying.