Often changing, never too large, typically imaginative and never dull. That’s the list at the Universal Wine Bar, my favourite haunt in Rundle St. It leaves most London wine bars dead in the water, and its constantly updated short list of about twenty wines by the glass is a perennial favourite. On offer you’ll usually find a couple of Australian benchmarks, a handful of new and innovative local wines (usually before they hit cult status), a brace of quality imported wines from smaller, specialist makers and at least two wild cards from wherever. It’s complete, but hardly huge, but the main list offers a focused and imaginative collection based generally around currently available and wisely chosen Australian wines and older European releases. You don’t have to spend much to buy a wine drinking very well after several years of maturation, and neither will you go short of fancy options if you’ve just come back from a big win at Morphettville or, heavens forbid, at Football Park… There’s only one thing preventing me from being a regular at the Universal: geography.
