It’s time to explore Feathers Hotel’s cellar

Feathers Hotel’s Greenhouse Restaurant serves Coffin Bay oysters and wagyu, and the wine cellar is stonkingly impressive.The 250 wines in there make up one of the most impressive spreads I’ve seen in a while.

Feathers Hotel sommelier Geoff Hunt. Photo: AAP Image/Russell Millard

A recent visit to Feathers Hotel shocked me. I remember frequenting the formerly scruffy Burnside pub during my university years. Back then, the booze was mediocre and a rotund DJ played Britney Spears’ I’m a Slave 4 U on repeat – if we asked nicely.

Two decades (and a $1.2 million refurb) later and there’s now slick seating where the sticky dance floor used to be.

Feathers’ Terrace Bar and Garden. Pic: Tricia Watkinson

The new Greenhouse Restaurant serves Coffin Bay oysters and wagyu, and the wine cellar is stonkingly impressive.

Luckily, 20 years can do a lot to a gal’s palate (as well as her taste in music).

The 250 wines in there make up one of the most impressive spreads I’ve seen in a while.

Sommelier Geoffrey Hunt curates the space and plans to gradually increase the offering to 450 wines.

Feathers’ chef Luke Brabin and sommelier Geoff Hunt. Photo: AAP Image/Russell Millard

Luckily he’s accustomed to volume. Hunt spent five years as sommelier at Tanunda’s fermentAsian where the wine list clocks in at more than 1200 drops. It is a lot to get your head around.

As Hunt walks through his new workplace, he reels off stories behind labels. “I spent my first three weeks writing a 600-plus wine list and then took the top 200 from that,” he says.

“It’s stuff that I drink. The idea is to have a little bit of everything – something for everyone.”

He especially champions the Adelaide Hills. Like the gobsmackingly good 2017 BK Skin n Bones Savagnin ($57), and 2018 Main & Cherry Pinot Grigio ($44).

Further afield, the 2015 J. M. Sélèque Coteaux Champenois Blanc ($133) hails from Champagne, and the 2018 Moriki Shuzō Suppin Rumiko no Sake ($127) was made to commemorate one of the first ever female brewers in Japan.

“The name translates to ‘Sake without make-up’,” Hunt says. It is a fitting companion to chef Luke Brabin’s Asian-inspired menu.

There’s also an ice cider from San Sebastian (of which the craftsman makes just one barrel a year – that’s 3500 bottles).

“It’s intense and absolutely stunning,” says Hunt, who sells it at $24 for a 30ml pour. “The only places I know of that have it are Michelin Star restaurants around Spain and France. Also fermentAsian (because I got it there before I left) and here.”

The sommelier also snagged three bottles of Bollinger Coteaux Champenois La Côte Aux Enfants (Aÿ Rouge) ($366) — three of only 18 in Australia.

That in mind, you know where to find me; feet up, Bollinger in hand, toasting misspent late teens in the foothills.