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.
