Natty Wine Favourite Drnks Is Closing Its “All-Consuming” Alexandria Bottle-O and Events Space

Drnks is known and loved around town for its funky line-up of drops, cool warehouse events and pop-ups. Also, speaking from experience, its speedy same-day delivery. You want a Japanese orange wine and some fancy chippies for tonight? Drnks has you covered. But founder Joel Amos is closing the roller door on his always bottle shop, sometimes party place. And going full-time digi.

“Drnks was born on the internet,” Amos tells Broadsheet, of the business he started in 2013. “We feel the shop has become so all-consuming that it has had a negative impact on what we do on the internet, and the service and ranging we offer around this … unfortunately the costs of running the business far outweighs the reward.”

The announcement follows Amos receiving notice of a 25 per cent rent increase at his Alexandria joint, which he moved into in 2021. With online sales making up 80 per cent of the shop’s total, a decision needed to be made.

The final day of IRL trade is yet to be locked in, but Amos is expecting to be outta there by mid-April. Before he hands his keys in, he’s throwing a farewell party at the Alexandria warehouse, with details hitting the Drnks socials soon. “I also don’t want to have to move all the wine,” Amos says. “So keep an eye out for a fairly hefty in-store sale.”

While the team’s sad to be leaving the Alexandria haunt – where there were cookbook markets and orange wine explainers, stand-up comedy nights and mezcal nights – there’s “a lot of relief” too. “Moving things 100 per cent online [is] what we know, and, to be kind of blunt, we’re really good at it.”

But that goodbye party won’t be the last event for the Drnks crew: with a smaller warehouse comes more time to put on events around Sydney (think the adored wine festival Huge Moves). First up is Loose Lips, a wine-fuelled takeover at The International on Saturday April 19. A bunch of winemakers will be pouring, Mitch Orr (ex-Kiln) will be on pizza duty, there’ll be DJs all arvo and a pop-up bottle-o, too.

More good news: once the Drnks team is settled in to its new home, you can expect speedier delivery times, a bigger range and extended delivery regions (like same-day sends to Parramatta and Cronulla).

Drnks final day of in-person trade is slated for mid-April 2025.

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