La Cave Garage bottle-shop opens in a Melbourne CBD carpark

Australia loves a bottle shop with a drive-through, but new Melbourne CBD wine store, La Cave Garage, takes that idea to the next level: it's literally located in a carpark.

The pocket-rocket of a shop has taken over a booth inside the carpark that's also home to beloved Thai restaurant Soi 38. The restaurant expanded recently into another section of the garage and, as part of that, La Cave also took on some real estate. Owner Andy Buchan is also a partner in Soi 38, as well as a winemaker at Adaption and an importer of hard-to-find natural wines.

His 10-square-metre shop stocks 200 bottles and counting, with an online store selling the same range from France, in particular, but also Spain, Italy, Austria and beyond. Buchan reckons Melbourne is lagging globally in its embrace of natural wine and he's keen to raise its profile.

"In the same way we wanted to bring boat noodles to Melbourne [with Soi 38], I wanted to be part of that education process for natural wine."

At La Cave, staff ask customers what they like and then display options on a monitor that faces the outside of the shop, so customers get a visual. Buchan originally wanted to create a "wine Tinder" that matched the right wine for the right occasion, but this is the next best thing.

He designed the shop this way, without fridges that people aimlessly browse, because he feels it's a less passive interaction.

"I like the more natural interaction that a sommelier has at the table in the restaurant, so we were influenced by that," he says.

Shoppers who wander over from Soi 38 can BYO wine to dinner without any corkage, but there are plenty of other BYO restaurants nearby in Chinatown that have been crying out for a quality bottle shop stocking lesser-seen labels.

"Dan Murphys and others might be closer but we think people will walk the extra block or two," says Buchan.

Open Thu-Sat 5pm-10pm or by appointment

Inside First Parking carpark, 38 Mcilwraith Place, Melbourne, lacavegarage.shop