Where the champagne set live: The Sydney suburb buying more fizz than anyone else

Winston Churchill is estimated to have downed 42,000 bottles of champagne in his lifetime. While the former British prime minister might be long dead, his spirit is very much alive in the good people of Double Bay, who purchased more champagne last year than any other suburb in NSW.

Willoughby and Mosman are the next biggest drinkers of the stuff, according to Endeavour Group – the company behind behemoth alcohol retailer Dan Murphy’s – which compiled the data from online orders and hundreds of its stores.

Double Bay is the champagne capital of sydney.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Crowning Double Bay the champagne capital will probably surprise precisely nobody, but for those who have never visited, it is perhaps best described as the epitome of the eastern suburbs.

Range Rovers and Porsche Macans outnumber the comparatively humble Mercedes-Benz C200, yoga and pilates studios sit alongside plastic surgeons’ suites, and it’s the only suburb in Sydney to have its own satirical news website: Double Bay Today.

It has a median house price of $7.7 million and the highest average taxable income in the entire nation which jumped to $354,000 in the 2021-22 financial year. The most common job is solicitor and it is home to dozens of management consultants and 91 chief executives, tax office data shows.

Sydney Morning Herald reporter Michael Koziol last year said: “Mocked as Double Pay for its sky-high prices, it can sometimes seem like a caricature of eastern suburbs excess.”

Much more has been written about the village of Double Bay, from its heyday in the 1980s to the vacant shopfronts of the following decades before a kind of renaissance of the past few years centred around the opening of Neil Perry restaurant Margaret.

But it is more eclectic than most people think, according to the co-owner of bibo wine bar Jonathan Mallet who opened his business in 2016, ranging from those who want to order vintage champagne to student night at the Sheaf.

Downtown Double Bay has had variations in economic activity over recent decades. Credit: Steven Siewert

“There’s the yoga crowd in Double Bay– they have a mortgage and they like to go out more often but not spend too much. The older crowd, who have paid the mortgage and the kids are out of the house, they’ve got more money to spend, are willing to go a bit higher.”

During the week it is still Double Bay and eastern suburbs locals, Mallet said, but on the weekend the suburb is alive with a crowd from further afield. He expects the suburb to become even more vibrant with additional developments taking shape.

“Weekends are a bit different now. There were not many venues on Bay Street, but now with Neil Perry’s Margaret, it brings a lot of foot traffic from other suburbs,” he said.

When it came to champagne, his non-vintage Taittinger was his bestseller last year, but he also sold a lot of a 2014 Louis Roederer.

“Obviously people like the big brands but [...] some of our guests are very knowledgeable,” he said.

“We have quite a strong female dominant crowd as well, who do enjoy champagne I think more than men.”

Across the country, Dan Murphy’s managing director Agi Pfeiffer-Smith said customers were buying champagne and sparkling wine throughout the entire year.

“We have been seeing more of a move to champagne and sparkling being consumed all year round, however the biggest increase in sales still remains around key events such as Christmas,” she said.

Locals in Double Bay say more women are inclined to throw back a glass of champagne, but industry data says more men are enjoying sparkling wine.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

“Shoppers are also spending more on Australian non-vintage sparkling across mainstream and premium price tiers.”

Industry body Wine Australia report last month slightly more men were drinking sparkling wine over the past decade, while fewer people in the 18 to 24-year-old age bracket were drinking it.

Australian sparkling sales had been on the rise in the domestic market from 2014, but the growth was halted following the pandemic lockdowns and then compounded by recent cost of living pressures.

Imported sparkling wines were also rising but are expected to grow at a slightly stronger rate in the coming years. The International Wine and Spirits Record, which tracks alcohol data, expects an additional 300,000 cases of imported sparkling wine to be sold in Australia by 2028.

Dee and Matthew Stark drinking champagne in Double Bay.Credit: Edwina Pickles

While Double Bay is the champagne capital, not everyone there is drinking the French stuff. Dee Spark, who previously lived in Double Bay but now resides elsewhere, popped down to the 18 Footers Bar on the harbour for a glass of fizz which she said did not necessarily have to be French.

“My favourite would be something simple from Tasmania,” she said.

She enjoys a sparkling wine about once a week and can see the value in an expensive bottle of champagne.

“It is a psychological trip, tasting something from that very old land where they have grown the vines for so long. I think it is the effort they put into that makes it taste better.”

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