Sydney's best restaurants sell their wine direct to the public for the first time ever

COVID-19 has hit Chinatown particularly hard. Billy Wong, owner and manager of the legendary Cantonese restaurant Golden Century took a heavy blow, having been shut for several months now. They've been operating takeaway with a skeleton crew and are offering drastically reduced markdowns on their wine list, which includes their own Bordeaux, and some of the harder-to-find drops from Australian producer Jim Barry.

Anyone with a taste for very good wine will no doubt be familiar with the late Michael McMahon's incredible cellar at Catalina. As the restaurant gears up to open with the increasingly looser restrictions, they continue to offer their entire wine list at 25 per cent off restaurant price to patrons ordering take-home meals. They also have a sommelier on-call and on-site to talk customers through the expansive list.

Over at the Bentley Group (Bentley Restaurant and Bar, Cirrus, Monopole, Yellow) the wines aren't discounted but so hard to find outside of a restaurant setting, they've caused a buying frenzy. Last weekend at two-hat wine bar Monopole (currently running as a Saturday market) there were queues down the street as people were trying to get their hands on those rare wines.

Collectible drops such as cult Champagne grower Selosse, niche small growers from the Jura such as Ganevat, Beaujolais from Foillard and Friulano superstars Radikon have all been on the shop floor, two bottles of each at any one time, with as many as 60 bottles being sold (one collector bought the Selosse owner/sommelier/wine hoarder Nick Hildebrandt had out that day at a cool $2000). There's plenty from the cellar that's never even seen the light of day, says Hildebrandt, whose original plan was to sell everything online, before realising they weren't set up for the task. What they're selling on the shop floor "doesn't even scratch the surface".

Curated six-packs of the good stuff have been a popular choice with venues such as Paddington wine bar 10 William Street, that don't have the space for a shop floor. Chef and co-owner of plush two hat fine diner Aria Matt Moran says the business intends to open up the restaurant's award-winning cellar in the coming weeks. They have one of the largest collections in the country and are currently considering how to sell it to the public. Packs of six will potentially be on the cards, says Moran.

It's not just restaurants and wine bars that have had to change the way they move bottles. Wine importer Andrew Guard has had to change much of his business model after losing 50 per cent of his business due to restaurant closures. "But it's better than 100 per cent," says Guard, who has worked in Sydney hospitality for the better part of his adult life. "Going forward, we'll probably be a slightly different business. We'll sell more to retail and direct to customers and less to restaurants."

There's never been a better time to set up a decent at-home cellar.