If you live in Australia you’d be familiar with the Dan Murphy’s liquor store chain. What you may not be familiar with is the story behind the man Dan Murphy and the beginnings of this business.

Today you can walk into the first of the Dan Murphy’s stores which is located at 282 Chapel Street in Prahran Melbourne. This was where Dan set up a store in 1952 across the road from, and in direct competition with his father Ted Murphy. Dan was the third generation associated with liquor retailing, his grandfather Daniel Murphy being the first in 1878.

The younger Dan Murphy had a particular interest in fine wine and he started his own store to do more than sell wine and liquor but to also import, review, share by holding social functions and create a wine club.

You can visit this original wine store and take a trip back in history to the massive cellar area downstairs which feels like part wine cellar, part wine museum. The staff at the store are more than retailers too with the wine knowledge of the people we spoke with extremely impressive, they are obviously passionate about their work.

It was surprisingly easy to spend a lot of time in the store and cellar just admiring the rare and vintage wines from both overseas and Australia with the biggest of names on display, yes including the renowned Penfolds Grange.

You can wander around to view and buy wines and read the Dan Murphy story and also the stories of some of the well-known wine families from various regions in Australia. In the cellar there is also an impressive set up with a large table for wine tasting events and a temperature controlled wine dispenser with an assortment of wines available for tasting, and the numbers on the bottles? Well that would be the price, so yes there was never a doubt that I would try the $150 per bottle of Tyrrells Wines Museum Semillon.

This store is open every day of the week and the knowledgeable staff are always on hand to fill you in on the history of the cellar and the man behind it. This is a really unexpectedly interesting outing and definitely one to put on the to do list for all of those who appreciate a good wine.

And just in case you have money burning a hole in your pocket you can also spend up big upstairs on a range of spirits too. There are some that will give you little change for your thousands spent.

A great spot to spend some time if you’re exploring Prahran in Melbourne.

Cheers

Glenys