Sip the list

Praise be to Harbour Society for having — I kid you not — 63 wines available by the glass. You can choose 100 or 150ml pours of fizz ( Clicquot,

Jouet, Taittinger or Pelorus) or 150ml, 250ml, or 500ml carafe sizes for 30 other wines covering all the styles from snappy, crispy, aromatic whites and rosés; bold, bodacious chardonnays ( Kumeu

River, Cave de Lugny); slippery pinot noir from every major NZ region; plus a Burgundian too. Other reds feature from the well-known regions Barossa, Gimblett Gravels, the Cotes du Rhone and Rioja (ree-ock-ah) plus desserts wines from Portugal, NZ and France. But the grooviest thing about Harbour Society’s list is that they have 29 rare and interesting wines available via the Corovin system. A Corovin is a handheld gun-like device that shoots a tiny hollow needle through the cork, allowing you to sample a small amount of the wine, while inert gas is released into the bottle to prevent any oxygen entering and spoiling the remaining wine. Then the cork, being soft and porous, immediately closes up the tiny hole and, hey ho, the remaining pristine wine can be enjoyed another day, another month or even years later! Fancy 30ml of Chateau d’Yquem?

All yours for $50. The cellar list of other wines available (from $45 to $1400 a bottle ) is a bit of a read at 20 pages, however all the different styles are segmented out for easy reference plus each section has a 200+ word intro of key facts about the grapes, regions, styles, all that good stuff that’ll help you sound flash in front of your friends. Nice job, Harbour Society.