Drummond Cellars

I quickly went to pop into Drummond Cellars when i was running late to a dinner party and turned up to it’s previous location to find it had been replaced! Then i found out the store had moved to Elgin st (good for me, its a few hundred meters closer now).
This place was always my first go-​to for booze, it has a range of cheap wines, local beers and ciders. If you’re not fussy about brands and what your drinking, this place is worth exploring!

It’s the sign that first grabs your attention: a flashing silver and blue word that takes up half the front window — «Booze!»
And that about sums it up. Opened in August, this is essentially Drummond Cellars relocated to Elgin St. But where the old store had a rep for being the place to grab a nice bottle of vino, it’s new incarnation points out that they do more than pricey wines. They also do cheap wines. They also do ciders, and they do local and imported beers. And yes, they still do pricey wines, but not so expensive that your bank card shivers in your pocket as you walk through the door.
There was definitely a need for a good bottle shop between Brunswick St and Lygon and Booze! fits the bill. A local stop-​off with a great range and a really big sign that forces you to own up to how you’re going to spend the rest of the night.

So this bottle shop was called Drummond Cellars, but since it moved to a new shop front on Elgin Street I’m not sure what to call it anymore. Not to worry, you can easily find it by the big, glittery ‘Booze’ sign in the window.
It delivers on the sign, too. Inside you’ll find three of the four essential booze groups required for a healthy summer — wine, beer and cider. I hear you screaming «where’s the gin?!» — I wish I had an answer. I suspect it’s because the shop has such an Australian focus, and our country is sadly lacking in gin distilleries. The selection of wines is small, but they’re all reasonably priced (there’s a lot of clean skins in the mix) and they are all good! Clearly they’ve been chosen for their taste and not because they’re well-​known brands guaranteed to sell well. The beer and cider have the same strong local presence, and the limited range makes decision-​making that much easier.