24.10.12

The Tasting Table: Jack Mullardʼs Enomatic Wine Tour of the World

Good French or Italian wines? Forget it; too expensive. Sommeliers? Crikey, talk about intimidating! What does “terroir” mean? Er, French for “terrier”?

Jack Mullard isnʼt laughing. The owner of hot new attraction, The Tasting Table and Wine Shop in High St, Armadale, sympathises with novices so much so, he will launch his four-week Sunday Sermons Wine Course on November 4th.

Each session there will be six wines - with matching cheeses – to taste blind as well as talks designed to appeal just as strongly to aficionados. Mullard takes guests on a fascinating tour of the wines of the world from vine to bottle.

Itʼs the latest initiative from the dynamic young Briton who was private accounts manager for London wine merchants Corney & Barrow before moving to Melbourne with his wife, Kerianna, a year ago. A job to kill for, many would have said, especially after Corney & Barrow – established in 1838 and holder of a Royal Warrant - did the wine honours for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

The Tasting Table, which opened in May, has a relaxed, stylish ambience. It looks like an upmarket wine lounge. Equally, its 200-strong list of quality wines – half of them Australian, the rest from Europe and South America, and none available in chain outlets – suggests a premium wine store. Both impressions are correct, though at an average price of around $25, most of the wines are comfortably affordable. And most enticing, customers can sample them thanks to three Enomatic wine dispensers – each housing eight bottles - which use argon gas to prevent oxidation and keep the wines in optimum condition for three weeks.

“We rotate the wines from our list every fortnight for the Enomatic machines and customers can taste a 25ml sample or buy a glass before settling on a bottle,” says Mullard. “These days you canʼt open a wine shop in the UK without an Enomatic dispenser. Harrods and Selfridges have installed them too.”

The ingenious wine-serving system, invented by Tuscan entrepreneur Lorenzo Bencista Falorni in 2002, may be de rigueur in Britain, but it is only just emerging in Australia. “I believe the combination of attractions that weʼre offering makes us unique in Melbourne,” says Mullard, who also stocks whisky, craft beers and traditional ciders, though his focus is solidly on wine.

Already going strong at The Tasting Table is regular evening and weekend tastings – complementary artisan cheese and meat boards available - winemaker master classes and wine dinners.

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