Maylands wine store wins long fight for liquor licence

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Maylands wine store wins long fight for liquor licence

By Daile Cross and Emma Young

A boutique wine store in Maylands which looked like it would be a victim of new state liquor laws introduced to "manage" the number of outlets in an area has had a big win.

In June, WAtoday reported the laws had "backfired", preventing the quirky Commune Wine Store from opening and leading to a long-lasting fight with the Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor.

Commune’s three founders, two of them Maylands residents, dreamed of a curated wine store where the people behind the counter were winemakers and sommeliers who had themselves tasted the majority of the 600 wines stocked.

Commune Wine Store co-owners Peter Baker and Chris Ford with manager Alex Cilliers.

Commune Wine Store co-owners Peter Baker and Chris Ford with manager Alex Cilliers.Credit: Jen Ford

That dream will come true on October 21 when they finally open the doors, with co-owner Chris Ford revealing the team had finally received a liquor licence.

He said staff were undergoing an intensive tasting regime to get up to speed. Their knowledge and passion for wine would set the store apart from others, where often the person serving knew nothing – or very little – about the products on their shelves.

"You walk into a wine store now you are just taking a punt on a bottle of wine that you might like," he said.

"When I was working in the wine industry I thought, 'There’s a small number of people who love wine and know a lot, but the general population are missing amazing-tasting wine because they’re too worried about making the wrong decision'.

"We will be breaking down that kind of elitism that surrounds wine.”

There would be bottles of wines open that visitors to the store could taste.

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Not a 'big barn outlet': Commune Wines  all fitted out and ready to go.

Not a 'big barn outlet': Commune Wines all fitted out and ready to go.

Mr Ford acknowledged this approach would be more costly to the owners, but the hit to profit margins would be worth it to offer such opportunities to customers.

“We are going to be hyper-focused on independent smaller producers, which in my opinion make significantly better wine, and also regions and grapes that are kind of off the beaten track," Mr Ford said. "A much broader range.”

This range would include wines from countries and regions not commonly represented on bottle shop shelves, including Japan and Slovakia.

There would be at least 100 West Australian bottles on offer.

The only comparable store in Perth with a similar approach is one in Fremantle.

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The battle to open Commune Wines centred on 2018 Liquor Control Act amendments aiming to “minimise the adverse impact that packaged liquor outlets can have on the community”.

These enabled the Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor to “manage” the number of outlets in an area and deny applications from a new premises.

The onus was upon Commune Wines to provide evidence that existing outlets could not meet local need; that the people of Maylands were having “substantial difficulty” or inconvenience in buying liquor.

The liquor licensing authority did not consider that their arguments about people desiring the tastings and educational classes they would offer constituted such evidence.

Mr Ford told WAtoday at the time that as far as he could ascertain, the departmental officers who processed their application had rung the four closest bottle shops, asked if they sold natural wine and how much, and on hearing some natural wine was available from these stores, denied the application.

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