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State Winner Western Australia: Must Winebar, Perth

If you’re looking for the strongest sign yet that the West Australian economy is really booming, forget the Financial Review and turn straight to the Champagne pages in the Must wine list.

From big houses to small, growers to grand marques, the Champagne selection represents a plundering of the cellars of Epernay and Reims on a grand scale.

Burgundy doesn’t escape unscathed either, this being one of the most compelling and enticing collections that’s available in Australia – as long as you have a suitably robust credit card.

But you don’t have to be a rich mining magnate to get real benefit from this list, painstakingly compiled by Emma Sputore and Paul McArdle.

Cutting-edge labels from throughout Australia find a welcoming home here, and the determination of Sputore and McArdle to dig a little deeper and look for the exciting and new is clear.

Italy is another nation with exceptional representation, with more than two dozen wines from across Tuscany, a similar number from Piedmont and a healthy smattering of interesting labels from regions such as Campania and the Marche.

Any wine bar worth its sea-salt must have an extensive and exploratory by-the-glass selection, and Must delivers on this score with several dozen wines offered by the glass or by the 60ml taste, as well as an admirable line-up of fortifieds, digestives, Cognacs and Armagnacs.

This is the kind of wine bar any one of us would want in our neighbourhood.
   
Must, 519 Beaufort St, Highgate, WA, (08) 9328 8255, www.must.com.au.

TEXT NICK RYAN

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