Wildfire is a new restaurant at Cicular Quay that is setting Sydney alight. It has a large, spacious wine list featuring some well-chosen and attractively priced wines by the glass, plus an impressive list of that perpetual bridesmaid, the half-bottle. It’s contemporary in its international flavour, but I’m not always entirely confident it is selected on the basis of quality ahead of interest. The list of Australian pinot noirs looks good on paper, but doesn’t come close to the Australian chardonnay selection. Tuscany does particularly well out of the Italian selection, which includes a fine range of the contemporary and traditional. It’s also pleasing to see a separate selection of Victorian wines made from Italian varieties. There’s also a very impressive collection of Spanish red wines. In these days of office computers and printers I’m never entirely sure about the idea of a separate rare and museum list, but there’s a fascinating collection of such wines at the rear of Wildfire’s wine list, several of which appear to be of excellent value. As for prices, they’re what you’d expect in Sydney, and the harbourside rent doesn’t make for bargain-hunting. In short, while there’s some room for improvement, this list is clearly the result of a lot of hard work.
