In Focus

It takes courage to hone the angles of a wine list, writes Max Allen, but the result can end up defining a restaurant.

- Max Allen

When Caitlyn Rees joined Mary’s Group earlier this year, the 2018 Gourmet Traveller Sommelier of the Year’s first job was to compile a killer wine list for the opening of Mary’s Underground, the brash, fun, foodie nightspot in The Basement, a former live music venue near Circular Quay in Sydney.

The founders of the original Mary’s in Newtown have long been enthusiastic supporters of wines on the natural spectrum – organic, biodynamic, wild-fermented, minimal additions – and these are also the kind of wines that Rees likes to drink. So, she decided to limit the list at Underground to wines that met these criteria – and put a statement outlining her philosophy on the first page of the list.

It’s great to see a sommelier go out on a limb like this, rather than create yet another list that tries to be all things to all people. It’s why Mary’s Underground is the winner of this year’s Wine List of the Year in our annual Restaurant Awards: it’s uncompromising in its natural focus – very on-trend and totally in keeping with the Mary’s ethos – but it doesn’t sacrifice accessibility, choice, deliciousness or value.