Overview
Northcote lands a new neighbourhood hub, gourmet grocer, and diverse wine store, with community at its heart. The new venture, Community Wine House, is from organic and natural wine label Minimum Wines, utilising its warehouse winery as a community space for gatherings, tasting, events, and more.
Matt and Leni Purbrick launched Minimum Wines in 2019 with Mat Bate. Matt honed his natural wine-making skills across Europe for several years before they settled in Australia in 2025 to establish their urban winery space. Now, the opening of Community Wine House coincides with the release of eight wines from Minimum Wines' 2024 vintage, all zero-zero natural wines made from wild-fermented organic or biodynamic grapes with no additions and no sulphur.
At the Community Wine House on Beavers Road, Northcote, visitors can sample Minimum's full range of 30 diverse wines, while snacking on share plates of Italian goodies such as artichoke bruschetta, cheeses, sardines and local pickles. There are also beers by Sobremesa, coffee by Small Batch and non-alcoholic bevs from Michief Brews.
Doubling as a gourmet grocer, pick up a bottle of wine and essential provisions spanning fresh breads and baked goods from Ovens Street Bakery, organic butter, local cheeses, meat and smallgoods from Bundarra Farm, fermented condiments, organic olives and oils, regeneratively farmed eggs and much more.
"The Community Wine House is a space to 'be'. Alone, or together. Our house is your house," says Matt Purbrick. "This is a place for the community. Yes, it's a space to share our wines. But more importantly, we hope it is a place where people can come together safely, inclusively and authentically — without any pressure to be, think or act in a certain way. Everyone is welcome in all the beautiful ways they experience the world, including kids and dogs!"
Community Wine House is open on Fridays from 4 to 10pm, Saturday from midday to 10pm and Sundays from midday to 6pm, with wine tasting available during all opening hours. As well as hosting natural wine education sessions and events such as no-phone analogue nights, the space will be available to hire during non-opening hours. It will also be offered to local community groups and organisations for community events.
Images: Supplied.
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