Ardo’s Wine has opened a new tipple spot and cellar door in Milton
We’re firm believers that every suburb should have its own neighbourhood wine bar. The crew behind City Winery agrees, which is why the urban-winery’s own cellar door offshoot Ardo’s is popping up all over town. Ardo’s has just opened its newest vino cave in Milton – a community meeting point that champions Brisbane-made wine and showcases it in a slick modern-industrial setting.
In the span of 12 months, Ardo’s Wine has grown from a vino-splashing upstart to a near Jeroboam-sized juggernaut. Since its Newstead flagship opened in March 2023, the City Winery crew has opened three more Ardo’s locations – one in Graceville, one in Hawthorne and one in Milton. Ardo’s Wine’s Milton location officially opened to the public on Saturday March 9, unveiling a sleek, industrial-tinged locale boasting the brand’s signature pink-marble bar top and rendered-concrete finishes.
The launch of Ardo’s Wine in Milton has heralded a slight shift in direction for the brand, with the team pivoting to shine a light directly on City Winery’s own product – underscoring the notion that Ardo’s is a cellar door, as much as it is a wine bar. “The concept is really that Ardo’s becomes your City Winery cellar door, on your doorstep,” explains City Winery general manager Doug Gilmour. “At City Winery we maintain a focus on supporting local communities as well as independent vineyard owners in our winemaking, so it’s a natural extension to bring that philosophy to Ardo’s.”
Fundamentally, not much else has changed. The shelves are still flush with a variety of vino – all of it available to drink in or takeaway. The biggest difference is a great representation of City Winery’s own artisan, small-batch and hand-made gear. Made using small parcels of high-quality grapes sourced from across Australia, City Winery wine offers a sensational cross-section of country’s viticultural diversity. Pale pink rosés and slightly blush-hued pinot gris can be found next to spicy shirazes and gluggable skin-contact drops. A short selection of guest-starring wines from other producers can also be spied on the shelves, offering a snapshot of Australia’s greater winemaking scene.
Like its sibling locations, Ardo’s Milton is equipped with a wine tap for oenophiles to pour their own carafes of a featured wine, or fill up a bottle to take home. Additionally, City Winery has added its wine-blending experience to the Ardo’s offering – a guided experience where guests can sample four wines that boast a different dominant characteristic (oaky, light or tannic, for example) in order to craft and cork a bespoke half-bottle drop they can enjoy at their leisure. On the snack front, Ardo’s has also swapped its range of pintxos-style snacks for a greater array of cheeses, charcuterie, and other accompaniments for folks to build their dream grazing board.
Ardo’s Wine in Milton is now open to the public – head to the Stumble Guide for more info.
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