Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead
Ardo's, City Winery's new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead

Ardo’s, City Winery’s new cellar door and wine bar, delivers primo vino and pintxos to Newstead

Newstead is quickly becoming known for its wine bars. A cluster of cosy hideaways can be found within a few blocks, each offering something different. Ardo’s, a fresh-faced newcomer from the City Winery crew now open on Wyandra Street, is weaving traces of Basque country hospitality into its operational style, pairing a broad array of minimal-intervention wines with toothsome pintxos.

Since opening on Wandoo Street in The Valley in 2019, City Winery hasn’t been afraid to spread its roots over town. Initially it started small, with a satellite cellar door in The City. Then came Carl’s, the group’s pop-up wine bar and bottle shop that took on a life of its own, becaming a popular spot for locals to down a pinot or two. Soon, you’ll see City Winery’s newest concept, Ardo’s, sprouting up in suburban pockets all over Brisbane. It’s already appeared in Newstead, down on Wyandra Street in the spot formerly home to Carl’s. In the broadest terms, Ardo’s is a hybrid – a micro cellar door and bar that’s suitable for drink-in custom and takeaway sales. Dig a tiny bit deeper, though, and some European influences become evident, giving Ardo’s a distinct character that sets it apart from City Winery. Taking cues from the snack-centric bar culture of northern Spain (particularly in San Sebastian), Ardo’s tweaks this Euro-tinged model and delivers it with a crisp design anchored by marble bar tops and rendered-concrete finishes. “We would never call ourselves a European wine bar at all,” says Ardo’s general manager Luke Reimers. “We’ve loosely adopted that style holistically, but obviously adapted it and made it suit for the Australian market.”

With 40 seats scattered across the cosy interior and breezy footpath dining, Ardo’s is an alluring option for those looking to park their posterior and enjoy a glass and a light snack. The shelves are laden with a colourful array of bottles ready to pluck and purchase either to sip on site or to enjoy at home, with a range that encompasses a swathe of Australia’s most exciting producers. “We focus on Australian viticulture,” says Luke on the Ardo’s range. “It’s all kind of leaning on that minimal intervention side, but we do focus on some super interesting European gear as well.” In addition to City Winery’s own Gerler range (which currently includes 27 skews, from delicate little grüners and bigger chardonnays to skin-contact varieties and blanc de blanc-style sparkling), Ardo’s 120-strong portfolio showcases a bang-on selection of drops that cover every main sector as well as seasonal specialities. Flip past the by-the-glass selection and you’ll find a handy list of showcased producers that stretches from Arfion, Basket Range and Defialy to Tom Shobbrook, Unico Zelo and Witches Falls, allowing guests to hone in on labels they already love or discover a new maker to add to their favourites. In the corner of a space sits a set of taps, which gives clientele the chance to minimise wastage by buying a branded vessel and filling it with a rotating selection of season-appropriate wines (currently, it’s rosé). “Because we are a winery we have this awesome ability to be able to keg anything that we make,” Luke elaborates. “Moving forward, every wine that we make we will keg a portion [for the taps].” On the food front, a cabinet at the bar is filled with an array of pintxos-style snacks that you can order by the piece and enjoy with your wine. If you’re eager to customise your array of nibbles further, a bunch of provisions (cheeses, charcuterie and assorted accoutrements) can be bought and assembled into a platter. Moving forward, the Ardo’s crew will also host wine tastings and signature City Winery experiences, with the wines of Adelaide Hills seizing the spotlight on Wednesday March 8 for the Wineslam: The Hills Are Alive event. Get tickets here.

Ardo’s is open now (head to the Stumble Guide for more details), but the City Winery team plans to roll out a number of Ardo’s location in the coming months. Stay tuned for more info on these plans in the near future.

The Stumble Guide is our comprehensive Brisbane dining guide with more than 2400 places to eat, drink, shop and play.

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