Best Club List: Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, Kirribilli

Cellar master Will Pettigrew has put together a floating-gin-palace list with outboard-runabout mark-ups to provide members with an extensive international range of value-for-money choices.

Just as in restaurants where it’s easy to build impressive-looking menus around black truffles and foie gras, so it’s easy to decorate wine lists with names such as Pétrus, Rothschild, DRC, Gaja, Vega Sicilia and so on. Pettigrew has shown commendable restraint in refusing this easy option. Although the Australian wine selections have the obligatory names – for example, Penfolds, Torbreck, Rockford and Henschke – what most impresses and sets this list apart is the consideration Pettigrew has shown for delivering the same varietal range, quality, depth and value in his sub-$40 wines as he has in the bigger guns.

His clearly laid-out Australian varietal selections and regional sourcings are impeccable, as are those from France and, to a lesser extent, Italy, California and Spain.

There’s a decent collection of Aussie and imported beers to quench a yachtie’s thirst, plenty of Champers and bubblies for celebrations, good selections of halves, magnums and imperials, and a large number of fine digestives and fortifieds to finish. In other words, it’s a list that caters perfectly to the needs and demographics of its membership, as every good club’s wine list should.

Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, 33 Peel St, Kirribilli, NSW, (02) 9955 7171, www.rsys.com.au.

TEXT GRAEME PHILLIPS

This article appeared in the August/September 2008 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.