These Four Wine Venues Have Been Named Australia's Best by the 2020 Wineslinger Awards
Wine lovers in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Geelong, rejoice.
Looking for an excellent wine to sip? Plenty of prizes, nods and gongs have you covered. Looking for a great bar to drink a few glasses in? That's the domain of the Wineslinger Awards — which announced its top 50 venues for 2020 back in August, and has now revealed its picks for the best four wine-sipping spots in the country.
Wine lovers in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Geelong, rejoice — your patch of turf is home to one of 2020's top vino venues in Australia. Only one can boast the overall winner, though, and that'd be Melbourne. This year's Wineslinger award went to the Carlton Wine Room — and that's a particularly nice win given that the venue was closed for almost seven months of the year due to COVID-19 lockdowns.
In the other fields, Adelaide's Leigh Street Wine Room nabbed the 'Best New Haunt' prize. Yes, that gong is rather self-explanatory. And in the 'Maverick' category — which is awarded to a venue that pushes the limits — Brisbane's Snack Man emerged victorious for defying food-and-wine pairing combinations (including matching Chinese snacks with European vino).
The three aforementioned awards were all voted on by more than 100 industry experts; think sommeliers, winemakers, hospitality tastemakers and journalists. But for vino aficionados at home, there's also the 'People's Choice' prize — and that went to Union Street Wine in Geelong, which has been serving great drops since 2014.
Carlton Wine Room
For folks looking for your next drinking spot, you now have four places to add to your must-visit list — whether they're close to home or you're making travel plans for when life gets back to normal. If you need further suggestions, the 50-venue shortlist shared the love around the country, with 15 bars in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, 12 in Victoria, eight in Western Australia, and five each in South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland.
The Wineslinger Awards were created in 2018 by Rory Kent, who also founded the Young Gun of Wine Awards. Where the latter prize aims to recognise stellar up-and-comers, the former is all about excellent and innovative places where vino lovers can enjoy an ace drop.
Announcing this year's Wineslinger winners, Kent noted that "2020 has been the toughest year ever for Wineslingers in this country, and that's made it equally tough on cutting edge winemakers who rely on the passionate individuals and their brilliant venues to capture the imaginations of wine lovers". He continued: "we're so excited to celebrate the places and hospitality professionals serving up the best wine experiences in the country, and after months of lockdown and restrictions, getting back to supporting them in person."
For further details about this year's Wineslinger Award winners, visit the awards' website.
Top images: Carlton Wine Room, Snack Man, Leigh Street Wine Room, Union Street Wine.
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