Wine on tap really is a thing and it’s as good as the stuff in bottles

Beer isn’t the only booze being served on tap as restaurants and bars embrace a new way to pour wine

Bartender Oscar Smith pours wine from a tap at the newly opened Chin Chin Sydney. Picture: Danny Aarons

Beer lovers will always opt for the brew on tap over the bottle and now wine wankers are getting in on it too.

Wine on tap is the next big thing.

Sydney’s hottest new restaurant, Chin Chin in Surry Hills, is serving five wines on tap and promises they are every bit as good as the stuff that comes out of a bottle and can save you money to boot.

Philip Rich, general manager of wine for The Lucas Group which runs Chin Chin, believes the snob factor around tap wines will disappear, just like it did with screw-cap wines.

Chin Chin says bye bye to the bottle. Picture: Instagram

“It’s just getting people to realise that even if it comes out of a keg, it can be the same, if not better quality than what comes out of the bottle,” he said.

“The first screwcap wines came out in the early 2000s and diners would send it back. Seventeen years later, everyone accepts screw caps.”

Chin Chin’s tap wines have been created for the restaurant by some of Australia’s best wineries including Brokenwood, Jim Barry and Yabby Lake and cost $11 a glass, $29 for a half carafe and $49 for a carafe. That’s a 20-30 per cent saving compared to bottle wine.

Wine on tap at Chin Chin is a hit with Sydneysiders. Picture: Instagram

“The Brokenwood semillon on tap is their bottle semillon. I’d be surprised if you can buy a bottle of that wine for $49 in a restaurant and we’re selling you a litre for $49,” he says. “How many restaurants do you go to where you can actually buy a 750ml bottle off a wine list for $49?,” Rich says.

TAP INTO A TOP DROP AT THESE VENUES

● Mordeo, CBD

● Rising Sun Workshop, Newtown

● Stav’s Eats and Beats, Sans Souci

● Italian Street Kitchen, Neutral Bay

● Public House Petersham, Petersham

● Hunter & Barrel Cockle Bay, Wharf

● Coogee Pavilion, Coogee

● The Bavarian, Penrith and World Square