Most bottle shops are organised around grape variety and region, but a new store has opened in Melbourne that aims to take the guesswork out of buying wine.

Drop Shop in Brunswick East is the brainchild of Pinot Palooza founder and Wine Victoria chair Dan Sims, drinks retail specialist Courtney Keegan (ex-Dan Murphy’s, Blackhearts & Sparrows) and Luke McKinnon, founder of communications agency Common State.

It’s a convenience store for drinks that’s designed like Aesop and run like 7-Eleven.

Pictured above: Co-founder Dan Sims and Store Manager Courtney Keegan.

McKinnon said: “We want to create a new category, an occasion-based liquor format that strips out the clutter and speaks directly to the individual who’s tired of choosing between a warehouse and a wine lecture.”

Wines are presented in three distinct categories — Weekday ($15–25), Party ($25–40) and Fancy ($40+) — with Victorian and rising producers front and centre. The same equation applies across wine, beer, RTDs, spirits, as well as non-alcoholic options. Format is just as considered, with six-packs, slabs, half-bottles, bagnums, cocktails and cans all chosen with the same care as the wine itself, because not every occasion calls for the same serve.

Across the board, it’s a tight selection, edited by Sims and Keegan in a process they describe as ruthless.

“Most retailers would probably describe themselves as highly curated,” Sims said, “but the average bottle shop stocks more than 1000 wines. At Drop Shop, we literally only have room for 150, so everything has to really earn its spot on the shelf. Think of each category as its own shortlist. The idea isn’t to limit choice — it’s to make choosing easier.”

For McKinnon, the experience is as important as the selection.

“People want convenience, speed and reliability. What’s changed is the expectation that it should come with significantly better curation and a nicer in-store experience,” he said. “We’ve created a space you move through instinctively and walk out of feeling good.”

With interiors by We Are Humble (Good Measure, Operator Diner) and branding by Hamish Childs, the tiny 60sqm neon-lit corner store takes its cues from the structured simplicity of Japanese konbinis. The shop’s gallery-like restraint — free of the visual clutter that often defines the category — gives wine a backdrop that is considered, confident and refreshingly original.

“We’ve seen entire categories transformed by better retail,” McKinnon said. “The experience has become part of the product. For something fun that people genuinely love, liquor retail has remained surprisingly unchanged. That’s crazy to me. What an opportunity.”