Page 4 – ALMANAK MAGAZINE

WINE > Clarence House Estate Pinot Noir, 2024 (17/20)

Clarence House Estate Reserve Pinot Noir 2024 is a poised, cool-climate Tasmanian Pinot that trades in perfume, fine-boned structure and quiet confidence rather than sheer volume, rewarding both contemplation now and patient cellaring later. APPEARANCE > Pale to medium garnet in the glass, with a translucent core that hints at delicacy rather than density. A…

February 22, 2026ByCrispin

EAT > Geralds Bar, San Sebastian Spain (17/20)

Walk a few blocks back from La Zurriola beach and you’ll find Geralds Bar, a warmly lit corner of Gros that feels part Basque neighbourhood dining room, part Melbourne wine bar reunion. It’s the kind of room where vinyl spins on the turntable, glasses of txakoli and nebbiolo clink across the bar and plates of…

February 22, 2026ByEd Itor

EAT > AUSTRALIA EAT > NSW EAT > SYDNEY WHERE TO EAT >

EAT > Saint Peter, Paddington Sydney (20/20) – 2026

Saint Peter in Sydney is one of Australia’s (possibly the world’s) most compelling places to eat seafood right now, a restaurant that turns whole fish into high drama without ever losing sight of comfort, generosity, and genuine hospitality. Relocated to The Grand National Hotel in Paddington, it feels like both a neighbourhood dining room and…

February 21, 2026ByCrispin

DRINK > WINE

WINE > S.C Pannell Sunrise 99, 2022 (18/20)

There are Grenaches that charm, and then there are Grenaches that draw a line in the sand. S.C. Pannell’s Sunrise 99, from a century-old McLaren Vale vineyard, feels like the latter: a debut that arrives fully formed, pitched at the serious, ageworthy end of the spectrum while still humming with McLaren Vale warmth, but this…

February 15, 2026ByCrispin

EDITORIAL

THE ALMANAK > FEBRUARY EDITORIAL

With many of our reviews in December and January focused on Japan, February returns us to Australia. ALMANAK remains a guide: a way to make sense of seasons, places and the choices that fill your calendar. February bends that lens back towards Sydney, taking one wharf, a few streets of Paddington and a clutch…

February 15, 2026ByCrispin

EAT > AUSTRALIA EAT > GC EAT > QLD WHERE TO EAT >

STAY > Ovolo Sydney, Woolloomooloo (16/20)

Ovolo Sydney, Woolloomooloo is the hotel that turns a heritage finger wharf into a neon‑lit playground: all‑in perks, bold design and a quietly serious sleep, right on the harbour’s edge. Set between the Royal Botanic Garden and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, it feels as much like an adults‑friendly clubhouse as a classic…

February 15, 2026ByCrispin

EAT > AUSTRALIA EAT > NSW EAT > SYDNEY WHERE TO EAT >

EAT > Otto, Wooloomooloo (16/20)

OTTO is Sydney’s original la dolce vita wharf restaurant: a polished, sun-struck slice of Italo-Sydney glamour where seafood, pasta and people-watching all arrive at roughly the same high gloss. AMBIENCE > Along Woolloomooloo’s Finger Wharf, OTTO is the restaurant that still looks like the postcard: linen-draped tables marching along the boardwalk, super-yachts bobbing in front,…

February 15, 2026ByCrispin

CAFE > CAFE > SYDNEY

CAFE > Barbetta, Paddington (16/20)

In the 1980s and 1990s Oxford Street Paddington was alive with the smartest cafe’s, it was where the hip people went to congregate. Then the rents went up and suddenly it seemed like the whole strip closed up overnight. But today while it has recovered some of the luxury brands, the real…

February 14, 2026ByCrispin

EAT > AUSTRALIA EAT > NSW EAT > SYDNEY WHERE TO EAT >

EAT > The Tilbury, Woolloomooloo (14/20)

The Tilbury is that rare inner-city pub-restaurant that feels equally right for a midweek Martini, a long Sunday lunch or a dressed-up dinner on home turf in Woolloomooloo. Set back from the wharf on Nicholson Street, it trades harbour theatre for something more quietly assured: a heritage shell smoothed into a contemporary, Mediterranean-leaning dining room…

February 13, 2026ByCrispin

EAT > AUSTRALIA EAT > MELBOURNE EAT > VICTORIA WHERE TO EAT >

EAT > Vinesmith, Melbourne (15/20)

Vinesmith is a rare thing in Melbourne’s CBD: a true city cellar door and more than that it actually feels tethered to the vineyards it pours, with a French‑leaning bistro upstairs that looks over Treasury Gardens and feels worlds away from the office towers below. It’s part wine bar, part bottle shop, part dining room,…

February 7, 2026ByCrispin