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One of the pretentious – but true – things wine people like to say is that it’s difficult to understand good wine until you’ve tasted great wine. Unfortunately, for most of us, that possibility is beyond reach or not particularly high up on our list of financial priorities. Truly great wine is, almost always, truly expensive.

Historically, there’s also been a fair amount of snobbery and gatekeeping by wine collectors and professionals. On the professional front, at least, that is thankfully changing – more and more often, good sommeliers are doing their best to welcome as many different kinds of wine lovers, with all budgets and constraints, into the fold.

But still, that doesn’t solve the problem: If you don’t have a tonne of money, how do you get your hands (or lips) on the good stuff?

Enter Xavier Vigier. Following a formula I’ve only ever seen a handful of times around the world, the former Ten Minutes by Tractor sommelier has opened Circl, a wine bar and restaurant that aims to significantly lower that financial barrier by offering a huge selection of rare wines by the glass or the taste.

This means you might arrive at the Punch Lane restaurant, formerly Bar Saracen, and be presented with a bottle of Meursault Blanc 2020 from Domaine Roulot – one of the rarest and most in-demand wines in the world – and be offered a 75ml pour for $87.

Almost $90 for a few sips might sound like no bargain at all, but this is the only bottle of the wine that Vigier was able to procure this year, and rather than hoarding it for the one big spender willing to fork out the four-figures it would surely cost by the bottle, he’s instead offering a chance for the rest of us to understand the magic of this wine and this winemaker.

I’ve never had a chance to taste this wine – or any from this maker – before, and it’s unlikely I ever will again. But the purity of the sunshine in that glass – its precision and elegance – is something I won’t forget any time soon. It puts all the other white Burgundies I’ve had into perspective, it gives me a benchmark against which to measure them. It’s an education in a glass and a highly pleasurable one at that.

There’s plenty to love here, even if rare wines aren’t of interest or in your budget. During my time at Circl, I had plenty to drink for less than $20 a glass, which Vigier was just as excited to show me. And the food menu, by chef Elias Salomonsson, makes this a worthy place to stop by even if you aren’t drinking at all.

The menu is flexible – as well suited to snacking as it is to the standard dinner crowd. I’d be happy enough coming in for pickled mussels ($17), which come in a tin with creme fraiche and thinly sliced pickled vegetables, and are served with the most impossibly thin rectangular potato crisps – perfect for nibbling alongside a robust white wine.

Tried and true flavour combinations are given new life with of-the-moment preparations. Goat’s cheese and beetroot, for example, are made into a pretty savoury eclair ($9 each). A tiny tart made from smoked eel ($14) is elegant above all else, its smokiness tempered by the freshness of dill and cucumber.

Speaking of fresh, Salomonsson does this season’s first crop of asparagus ($25) justice, serving it three ways on one plate: lightly blanched, in thin raw strips, and pickled, alongside a comte custard that looks like Silly Putty but tastes fantastic.

Salomonsson spent seven years at Vue de Monde, and you can see his old-school fine dining chops with main courses such as a half duck ($72), its crisp skin crusted with fennel, bathed in a Davison plum sauce with burnt orange. The rosy breast and confit leg are cooked perfectly and arranged on the plate with artistry and care. It’s almost a bit of a throwback, but a good one.

It’s an education in a glass, and a highly pleasurable one at that. 

Service is casual enough to cater gleefully to a gurgling baby, and yet it, too, has a fine dining underpinning. There’s a quiet confidence to the servers, and Vigier is a constant presence, bounding from table to table, guiding people through his extraordinary list.

There’s a generosity at the core of Circl, a real sense that Vigier hopes to share his knowledge, his wines and his joy with everyone, not just the big spenders. It was also likely a huge gamble – this kind of cellar and fit-out don’t come cheap. I hope it pays off, for selfish reasons (among others). I want to taste the good stuff at a price I can swallow, and Circl gives Melbourne that thrilling option.