How Casa de Vinos built a unique, niche and rare booze business

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In the dark days of interminable Melbourne lockdowns, online tastings were a bright spot – of course, drinking delicious spirits and getting a slight buzz on in your living room was the most fun you could have at that point, but really it was the social aspect that was so important. It was always nice to see familiar faces, but there were also a few people who I got to know first as little heads on a screen – one being Jose Dymenstein, owner of Casa de Vinos in South Melbourne, which held regular Zoom sessions.

Casa de Vinos has been around for 15 years this year, and as the name suggests it initially had a focus on wine, given Jose’s background as a winemaker. He was fed up with the country life and wanted to move to Melbourne, but missed out on a sales job he was going for. “You know what those chats are like, it's 2am in someone’s kitchen and they go yeah, you should open a wine shop,” he says. “We don’t listen to those mates anymore. But anyway, I did it, I opened a wine shop.” 

The shop was originally situated in Port Melbourne, and the threat of competition from Harry & Frankie opening, with a bigger budget and respected sommelier behind it, made Jose switch his focus to spirits. They started importing from European distributor and independent bottler La Maison du Whisky, and bringing in Clase Azul tequila. 

“For Clase Azul we mortgaged my wife’s apartment, so if it didn’t work we lost everything,” says Jose. “But it worked. It worked!”

Walking into Casa de Vinos is like entering Aladdin’s cave for booze nerds – I saw bottles I haven’t seen for years, and bottles I’ve never seen before. “Beyond anything, I’m a collector,” says Jose. “I collect all these nice things, and share them, but once a collector always a collector – you decide what to open, which is where you downsize, but you still fortify another part of the collection so you never stop. It's almost like an addiction, right? You know, if you decide to open something, it's because something else has probably filled that void in your soul. And so you decide, I finally acquired this one so I can open that one.”

Perhaps Casa de Vino’s longevity can be attributed to this willingness to evolve and share the love. They moved from wine to spirits, and from Port Melbourne to South Melbourne, where Jose was able to get a general licence meaning it now operates as both a bottle shop and a bar (or Liquor Store and Lounge, as they phrase it). They also have a wholesale distribution side for those looking for interesting bottles for their back bar and run Whisky Abbey, an annual festival, as well as regular tastings.

The magic of this is that while their offering tends towards the rare, niche and high end, you can sample before you commit, or just for education’s sake. This side of things has always been important to Jose. At the winery he started doing training, and also taught winemaking to bartenders and front of house staff at TAFE. “I learned that teaching gives you the tools for respect, you kind of become someone because you are giving information,” he says. “I’ve always believed in it and it has made such a difference moving [to South Melbourne] and having the general licence and  being able to just have bottles open for people to taste.

“ The fact we are across from Chefs Hat, it's the most important spot for hospitality workers – any bartenders that go there can come here. They come and say hi and we give them something new to try. We don't charge bartenders unless they come to drink, if they come to taste we don’t charge them.”

This approach has been formalised with monthly tastings in their first floor tasting room which are free for all active hospitality professionals, generally hosted either by Jose or sales and strategic partnership manager (and well known hospo industry face) George Leung. George is also happy to organise private masterclasses for venues and groups who work with their distribution side.

An important aspect of these sessions is that they are not necessarily brand-led, and even where they do speak about brands they represent there isn’t much marketing ‘fluff’, as Jose puts it due to them working with smaller brands, although he does point out that they would never diss larger brands as they do so much for category awareness through marketing and education. 

“We try to be as honest as we can, and technical when we do the tastings,” Jose says. “Any education is good, our way is maybe a bit more raw. Sometimes people come here and they feel like wow, everything they have learnt has just been turned upside down.

“ We talk about from a technical point of view, what, let's say, what's the smell of rum and what creates it and we deep dive into, let's say esters and the formation of esters. Which at a normal tasting, you know, people might fall asleep, but we expect that the people that come here get a little bit more into it. We are trying to aim for the top tenth percentile, the ones who want to sustain hospitality as a career.”

Given I’d imagine that is a large proportion of those reading this, it would be silly to not take advantage of this amazing resource.

Around the Bars

• I had a little trip over to Cambodia last week and got to tour the Samai distillery, making rum in the heart of Phnom Penh. It was a proper party vibe there as they open their distillery as a bar every Thursday, but we still got to look around and taste some rums – the standout was their Kampot Pepper Rum which worked deliciously in a Treacle with apple juice, honey syrup and bitters. Conveniently, Casa de Vinos brings in Samai if you want to try it here.
• On the subject of try-before-you-buy spots, Botanik in Kyneton is well worth incorporating into a road trip – they have a huge selection of local and international vermouth, amari and aperitifs, all of which can be sampled at the bar either neat or in a cocktail like their Pretty in Pink, one of the best gateway Negroni variations I’ve tried.
• Union Electric is celebrating its 10th birthday on Sunday 13th April, a huge innings and one of my favourite venues I’ve ever worked at. There are sure to be plenty of shenanigans so get down to celebrate – I fear nuisances may be committed.

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