The range
Everything on the site under fifty dollars — everyday wine, canned cocktails, mixers and the spirits that do not need to cost more.
This page builds itself from the live price of each bottle, so it is always current and never lists something that has since gone up. Spending less does not have to mean drinking worse: there is Australian-made gin, proper prosecco and bar-made cocktails in here.
84bottles, chosen one at a time.
Coonawarra, South Australia
We stock it because Coonawarra cabernet is one of the few genuinely distinctive things Australia does with the grape, and this is the least expensive way onto that strip of red soil.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$14.99
South Eastern Australia
We stock it because cabernet merlot is the blend most people mean when they say they want a red that is not too big, and because nothing else in the top twelve covers it.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$13.99
South Eastern Australia
We stock it because it is number eight in the state, and because the bin numbers are the reason a lot of Australians know how to ask for a red wine at all.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$13.99
Clare Valley, South Australia
We stock it because it is number nine in the state on its own merits, and because Clare cabernet is firmer and less sweet than the Barossa reds beside it - the two bottles are not interchangeable and the shelf should show that.
750 mL14.0%8.3 std
$19.99
Clare Valley, South Australia
We stock it because it is the highest-ranked single-region red in the state that is not owned by one of the two big groups, and because Clare shiraz tastes of somewhere in a way that a South Eastern Australia blend cannot.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$19.99
South Eastern Australia
We stock it because it is number six in the state and because it does the same job as the Koonunga Hill blend several dollars lower, which is a question customers ask directly.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$8.99
South Eastern Australia
We stock it because it is number two in the state and the least expensive real bottle in this range, and because a shelf where the cheapest red is twenty dollars is not serving everybody who shops here.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$9.99
Barossa Valley, South Australia
We stock it because it is the number one red in the country and number four in this state, and because it is the point on this shelf where a shopper crosses from a wine they know into a wine from one named place.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$19.99
South Australia
We stock it because it is number three in the state behind its own stablemate, and because a customer who has decided on Koonunga Hill has usually also decided which grape they want.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$14.99
South Australia
We stock it because it is the red more people in New South Wales buy than any other, and because it is the cheapest bottle on this shelf carrying a name that means something to a winemaker as well as to a shopper.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$14.99
Australia
We stock it because someone building a punch bowl for twenty people should not have to buy a bottle designed for sipping, and because the honest answer to what to use is not always the expensive one.
700 mL37.5%20.7 std
$46.99
Ahus, Skane · Sweden
We stock it because it is the vodka more people in New South Wales buy than any other, and a range that skips the one bottle everybody knows is not curating, it is just short.
700 mL40.0%22.1 std
$57.99
Choose size: Absolut Vodka
South Australia
We stock it because shiraz cabernet is an Australian idea before it is anyone else's, and because this bottle is number five in the state while the two single varieties are one and three - the customers are not choosing between them, they are buying all of them.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$19.99
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because this is the one people ask for by name, and because the zero-alcohol version of a sweet drink has to work hardest of all - there is no spirit underneath to carry it, so the fruit has to be real.
250 mL0.0%0.0 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because the Paloma is the drink this shelf has most to say about - Karu's smoked chipotle version sits a few tiles away - and because somebody who is not drinking should be able to have the same drink as everyone else rather than a different and lesser one.
250 mL0.0%0.0 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because a bottle shop that sells only alcohol has nothing to offer the person at the table who is not drinking tonight, and because handing them a soft drink is not the same gesture. This is recognisably the drink everyone else is having.
250 mL0.0%0.0 std
Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria
We stock it because a distillery canning its own drink is rarer than it sounds - most cans in this category are made under contract for a brand that owns no still - and because which of the two you are holding is worth being able to tell.
250 mL8.0%1.6 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because Maybe Sammy make it from the fruit, and because a drink carrying that reputation is worth one bottle on the shelf arguing the reputation is out of date. Ingredients: 42 Below Vodka, Lemon Myrtle, Lychee, Supasawa
100 mL24.0%1.9 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it is the only coffee cocktail here built on rum rather than vodka, and the gap between those two is most of the argument for buying a drink somebody made instead of the bottles to make it. Ingredients Bacardi Oro, Mr Black, Pineapple, Almond
100 mL22.0%1.7 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because the aperitivo is the one drink on this shelf with an actual job to do, and because most bottled versions are a spritz with the bubbles taken out. This one holds together poured over ice on its own.
100 mL18.0%1.4 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it is the one in this range we would hand somebody who says they do not like Martinis, and because it usually turns out that what they did not like was the gin rather than the drink.
100 mL26.0%2.1 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it takes a drink people order out of habit and gives them a reason to notice it again, and because Maybe Sammy have the standing to change a Martini without it reading as a gimmick. Ingredients 42 Below Vodka, Olive Brine, Oregano, Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth, Grapefruit Bitters
100 mL28.0%2.2 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it is the one bottle here that could not have been made anywhere else, and because it answers a question worth asking: what the classic cocktails would look like if they had been written in this country.
100 mL26.0%2.1 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it was built by a bar that has to defend it to customers every night, and because the small bottle lets you put it beside the canned Margaritas on this shelf and taste what the difference between the two formats actually amounts to.
100 mL22.0%1.7 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because the Old Fashioned is the drink most often ruined by pre-mixing - too sweet, too dilute, or both - and this one is neither. It also travels, which matters when the alternative is carrying three bottles and a jigger to someone else's kitchen.
100 mL30.0%2.4 std
Sydney, New South Wales
We stock it because it comes from a working Sydney bar rather than a contract bottler, and because 100 mL is one drink. You are buying a single Negroni made by the people who built their name on it, not a bottle you have to commit to.
100 mL24.0%1.9 std
Yarra Valley, Victoria
We stock it because it is the Four Pillars can that tastes least like everything else in the fridge, and because the bottle it is built from is on our gin shelf, so you can find out whether you like the idea before committing to one.
250 mL5.5%1.1 std
Byron Bay, New South Wales
We stock it because it is the same gin we sell by the bottle four tiles away, and because a canned G&T that tastes of juniper rather than of sweetened citrus is rarer than the shelf space this category gets would suggest.
275 mL6.0%1.3 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because it is the least obvious can in the range and the one most likely to change someone's mind about what a canned cocktail can be.
130 mL20.0%2.1 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because the drink has spent forty years being made badly and this is what it is supposed to taste like.
130 mL17.0%1.7 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because it is the version people ask for, and because the heat is built in rather than sitting on the rim as a gimmick.
130 mL22.0%2.3 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because a Margarita made properly is three ingredients and no sugar syrup, and this is the only canned one on our shelf that reads that way.
130 mL22.0%2.3 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because Mr Black is made an hour up the coast and sits on our own shelf, and because most canned versions of this drink are sugar and coffee flavouring.
120 mL20.0%1.9 std
Melbourne, Victoria
We stock it because it is built from spirits we sell separately, so you can taste the parts against the whole, and because the strength is on the front of the can rather than buried.
140 mL24.0%2.7 std
Catano · Puerto Rico
We stock it because a range that carries only obscure bottles is making a point rather than serving customers, and because plenty of people know exactly what they want.
700 mL37.5%20.7 std
$49.00
Richmond, New South Wales
We stock it because most canned drinks are sugar with a spirit somewhere behind it, and this one is recognisably made from something we already sell. One can is about 1.2 standard drinks.
250 mL6.0%1.2 std
$7.00
