Nick's Wine Merchants

Four generations of the same family have run this wine and spirits warehouse in Melbourne's east since 1958, a stretch of independent trading that's rare among Australian bottle shops still standing. The Jackson Court warehouse trades on depth rather than boutique presentation — a serious whisky range in particular, with the team known for putting together its own exclusive bottlings rather than just reselling what distributors send through. It functions as a destination store for collectors and enthusiasts across Melbourne's east rather than a corner bottle-o, the sort of place worth a specific drive for a bottle a suburban chain wouldn't stock. Staff who've been trading wine and spirits for decades, not months, back the range with genuine product knowledge. A family business now in its fourth generation is an increasingly rare thing in Australian liquor retail, worth supporting on that basis alone.