Find Bourke Street’s Midcity Centre – a tired-looking arcade mixing retail shops with hair salons, phone repair stores and a ramen joint or two – and take the escalator to level one. Look immediately to your right and spot a singular circular sign floating next to a fluorescent ceiling light and fire hose reel. In its previous life, Pearl was a nail salon – now, it's a luxury wine bar dedicated to the perfect pairing that is chablis and oysters. It features the largest wine list of the Burgundy white in the world, a carefully curated selection of Australian oysters and plenty of other bougie snacks (see: caviar served in a lobster).
Whether you're looking for a bar in the north, south, east, or west of our fair city, Time Out Melbourne has got all points of the compass covered. Walk into any of these top-notch wine bars and you're guaranteed service by staff who know what they're talking about, a great atmosphere, and of course, a solid wine list. And being the snack-loving city we are, you can bet these venues are no slouch in the kitchen, either.
For more carefully curated guides to Melbourne's drinking culture, head to our favourite cocktail bars, rooftop bars and whisky bars.