A couple of Melbourne bottle shops

Bottle Shops (Australian for Wine Merchants): we love it. So down to earth and no-nonsense.Yet inside, there's plenty of sophistication and lots of thought behind the selection.

Our guide, the indispensable Darby Higgs recommended Cloudwine on (Wynyard St!)

and Prince just around the corner. Both are excellent in different ways; Prince a bit more up-market with a more international selection

and at least a few Hunter Valley Semillons

tasting and event room,

amazing chandelier made of wine glasses, Cloudwine with more reasonably-priced bottles almost exclusively Australian but plenty of choice. It is difficult to leave either shop without a bottle or two.

Cloudwine also sells Muscat on draft from a barrel - a touch of which we approve.

There are of course other Bottle Shops in Melbourne. We liked at least one other on Toorak Road: The Bottle House. We didn't go into any supermarkets but from what we saw in the basement of David Jones (equivalent of John Lewis) the independents have it.