Cellar’s Market
A tight little boutique wine bar at the top of Woodward St off Lambton Quay, Beaujolais has a real wine cellar feel to it. 

It has been open for 18 years, according to Deb McMillen, who started the place and handed the reins to husband Pete in 2006. 

Beaujolais has a real Euro-ambience. That might seem like a bit of a toff thing to say, but it harks back to some little hole-in-the-wall from the Old World cities on the Continent. 

Old World could describe the company here too. When I went, the place was middling busy with mostly middle-aged and upper-middle-aged clientele. 

Conversations, thanks to some keen eavesdropping, might typically dance around such weighty topics as divorce, kids getting married, or a dinner party to which “we must invite some judges”.
 
Perhaps Beaujolais appeals to those with experience — the formidable wine list features 30 wines by the glass and dozens more on the blackboards; the place is a wino’s paradise.
 
But, even better, the staff and particularly the owner, don’t care if you haven’t the foggiest what to order, because they love it and can easily help.
 
Happily guided into a Joseph Drouhin Laforet 2005 Pinot Noir from Burgundy ($46 bottle), I would have equally happily tried all the wines on the menu.

My bank balance might not have been so amiable, with most wines upward of $100 a bottle, all the way to the Louis Roederer 1996 Cristal champagne at $1050. But with the nous behind the wine buying, you can assume everything there, from $40 to $400, will be worth a tipple.
 
The top shelf is fairly limited though there are a few well-chosen beers in the fridge. Deb claims a fine array of Scotch whiskies for when the conversation turns more serious. 

The food is French, and very good. Bar snacks ($8-22) range from olives to spiced nuts to a more substantial terrine and the self-explanatory Ultimate Platter
($72.50).
 
The place is dark and cosy. with a rustic ambience defined by myriad wine bottles. terracotta pipe wine racks, a French flag and the low studs that give it a real cellar feel. 

The toilets are passable, while a tad rustic themselves. 

The furniture is simple, the staff are friendly and knowledgeable: it’s a pleasant package. 

Claiming to be the original wine bar in New Zealand. “and. ahem. the best” on its website. Beaujolais does well to make good on those promises. 

To be doing it for nearly two decades with the same owners is a quality you won’t find in many bars around town.
 
NICK CHURCHOUSE ~ The Dominion Post, Saturday 12th January 2008.