The Valley Cellardoor

IT MAY not be fashionable at a time when even the most astonishing news is greeted with a roll of the eyes and a snarky online comment but there's something to be said for enthusiasm.

And when that enthusiasm is - as it is at The Valley Cellardoor in Moonee Ponds - about carefully selected, good-quality, mostly local and very reasonably priced beer and wine, there's even more reason to get all happy-clappy about it.

Twelve months ago, The Valley Cellardoor was one of those joints flogging cleanskins. A bit of a rethink and renovation later and it's now a brilliant little wine bar, with streetside tables under awnings, a backyard with a barbecue and a couple of indoor seating areas around the central bar/counter. The walls are lined with bottles for sale so you could just use the place as a takeaway bottle shop but with knowledgeable, attitude-free staff, a modest, comfortable fitout and a surcharge for drinking in at a mere $5 a bottle, it feels a bit joy-crushing not to linger.

The Valley has a small selection of snacks of the cured meat, cheese, olives and chocolate variety (jamon, $7.50) but also has a BYO food policy so that on most nights the place is filled with the sound of plastic takeaway containers being snapped open and the smells of Thai and Indian food from just down the road.

You can also bring meat to barbecue out the back.

There are usually 10 wines by the glass from a changing list of mostly Australian labels (2008 Two Penny's Shiraz from the Barossa, $6), while most of the bottles on the list sit in the $15 to $25 range. There's also an interesting list of beers, including one regularly changing variety of 2 Brothers on tap (perhaps the feisty American Brown Ale, $4 a pot).

It's hard not to be enthusiastic about The Valley Cellardoor. A perfectly pitched local doing what it does well is the best excuse for it.