New tasting experience for Sydney
Winsor Dobbin
Sydney has a new mecca for wine lovers with the opening of Wine Odyssey in a funky and beautifully restored old building in The Rocks.
Wine Odyssey combines a wine bar and restaurant with the chance to sample over 40 different boutique wines by the taste, half glass or glass thanks to the bank of Enomatic machines that have been installed.
The upstairs tasting theatre offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy a structured tasting of six boutique wines and to visit an aroma room to discover what brett and corked wines smell like, as well as the difference between blackberries and blackcurrants. Gourmets will enjoy the tasting flights, which combine three glasses of wine with three appetizers.
Partners whose wines are featured in the tasting theatre include Brian Barry, Poole’s Rock, Mayfield Vineyard, Lamont’s, Panorama and Witchmount.
The Wine Journey room, where you serve yourself, is a real treat.
The high-tech Enomatic system, which ensures the wines are fresh, dispenses different size servings of various Australian wines, ranging from Penfolds Grange and Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon to names like Veritas and Two Hands.
You can choose from a taste (25ml), a half glass (75ml) or a full glass (150ml).
When you arrive, you’ll receive a Wine Odyssey Australia Card. You can pre-pay and use it as a debit card, or run a tab and pay for your wine when you leave.
Insert your Wine Odyssey Card into the Enomatic machine and you’ll see the price of that particular wine in various sized serves. You’ll also see the balance you have left if you’re using your card as a debit card, or how much you’ve spent so far if you’re running a tab.
Journey Cards are offered so visitors can theme their tastings by wine varieties and regions and also feature tasting notes.
It’s a lot of fun and hugely educational.
A further 200 labels are available by the bottle – and the wine store next door ensures you can buy anything you have particularly enjoyed and take it home.
Wine Odyssey is open daily, noon-10pm Sunday-Wednesday and Noon-midnight Thursday to Sunday at 39-43 The Rocks (the corner of Harrington Street). The wine store is open daily from noon-9pm.
Regions
- Sydney (NSW)
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