Enoteca Boccaccio review 2023: Kara Monssen visits Balwyn wine bar

Champagne for under $20, back-vintage Bordeaux and BYO may have vino lovers in a tizz, but it’s not the only reason to visit this new Balwyn wine bar.

Enoteca Boccaccio not only pours value for money wine, but understands what it means to be hospitible. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Attention wine nerds.

There’s a new bar selling champagne (the real stuff) for under $20 a glass.

It’s also pouring Bordeaux as old as the Sydney Olympics for a steal. Not your jam?

How about pinot grigio for a tenner, or a bottle — not from the reserve list — for under $100. And on some days, you can BYO.

There’s no catch, nor any God-ugly thick-rimmed, stumpy glassware at this bar.

Just a wine-loving family doing us a solid in the suburbs.

Even if you don’t drink, Enoteca Boccaccio is swoonworthy.

Veal agnolotti. Picture: Nicki Connolly

The fancy fit-out, sweet staff you’d claim as your own, and appreciation of proper Italian food. Huzza Balwynites! The ‘dry zone’ days are over.

Enoteca is run by the D’Anna family, behind bougie bottle shop and grocer Boccaccio Cellars.

The deli alone has more soppressata you can poke a (kabana) stick at, the cellar a role-call of wine varieties ending in ‘o’.

Moradella stuffed fried olives. Picture: Nicki Connolly

After three years of delays, owner and wine importer Anthony D’Anna’s bar dreams are now in full swing; living happily above his parents pride and joy.

Follow the peachy pink marble staircase, off Burke Rd, to wine heaven.

Marquee queen Mim Design has done a number on the place.

Dark timber walls, cabernet-coloured drapes, clay-tiled floors, and a striking white marble bar flanking one side of the narrow room.

Enoteca could easily be another scary and pretentious wine bar, but it’s far from it.

Staff won’t cock their brows to the question: ‘what’s a soave?’ They seem genuine, want you to feel comfy and go beyond to do so. When I arrived for lunch, I was told a booking system glitch meant myself and many others didn’t have a table. They found a space for us at the bar, and shouted everyone a round of oysters and champagne. Now that’s solutions-based hospitality at its finest. Let’s geek out for a sec on wine.

Sea bream. Picture: Nicki Connolly

There are four ways to drink: young, budget friendly belters by glass or bottle, reserve list back-vintage bangers (from D’Anna’s personal cellar), a secret, off-menu list poured via Coravin (nifty gadget to drink old wine without opening the bottle) and BYO Tuesdays and Wednesdays for $20 corkage.

Impressively wine director Elena Leardini, Tom Bastion and Anthony find a way to cater for all tastes. Driving? Ask for a half-pour; which puts an otherwise exxy, 23-year-old (baby at heart) Pauillac from Bordeaux well within reach.

You can also ask for half-portions with the food, but with executive chef Andrew Beddoes (ex-Tartine) on the pans, you may not want to.

Pop golden-fried green olives stuffed with mortadella to get things going, or maybe a smudge of truffle-laced Italian blue on lavosh will do the trick.

Beddoes reinvents the winter roast with slow-cooked onions and duck hearts ($25); gushing with robust bottom of the pan juices, butter, capers and tangy balsamic you forget what you’re eating.

Jerusalem artichoke, stracciatella. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Gooey stracciatella ($22) levels nicely with powerful Jerusalem artichokes and black truffle, while a hunky 1 kg T-bone steak ($150), served Florentino style, is best reserved for a ballsy barolo and mates.

While it’s easy to lean rich and heady with this type of cooking, Beddoes keeps things appropriately light. Like the sea bream ($50) supple, fleshy and doused in a sea-like broth with salty clams and charry wodge of cabbage riding alongside.

The veal agnolotti del plin ($35) toes the same line. Those yolky, pinched dumplings are let down by fractionally thick pasta, though wade in clear chicken broth that’s not shy of flavour.

Same goes for the lemon tart, with a liquid-like centre, buttery crust, and tongue-coating creme fraiche — next time I’m ordering the whole tart.

Lemon tart. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Crazy delicious eating and drinking will only get you so far. How wonderfully refreshing it is for new operator Enoteca Boccaccio to deeply understand and honour what it means to be hospitable in all that it does.