NSW: Woollahra: The Wine Library

Date Visited 28 October 2025. Not recommended.

Guillaume Gonnet Southern Rhône Wine Dinner

This was a function that they organised (Plates are shared between 4):

SNACK: Savoury cone topped with tomato brushetta and stracciatella : Very good

ENTREE: Polenta with anchovies and taramasalata: Good, but the taramasalata was no different to store bought taramasalata.

PRE MAIN: Lamb ribs with baba ganoush: Not good. There was more cartilage than lamb.

MAIN: Roasted Duck with red wine jus, green apple vinaigrette (between 2):

Not good. I am not a fan of blue duck breasts. Tough and no flavour.

SIDES:

“Greek Salad” Not really greek, no olives, and it contained lettuce.

WL signature Roasted potatoes

DESSERT: Vanilla Panna Cotta. This was good.

There were 8 wines to be tasted. The first bottle was corked and there was no replacement. The remainder of the wines were very good (Score 17-18/20).

It gets worse:

the noise level with 20 people in a small function room was deafening. My ears are still ringing nearly a day later. I measured the sound averaging 88dBA over 3 hours!
There was no matching of wine with food.
Below is the advertisement on their web page. As you will see, it was advertised at $165 a head. However when presented with the bill we were told that there is a compulsory 10% surcharge because the group was greater than 13, and that this was mentioned in the fine print. Even if there was “fine print” (and I still can’t find the fine print) the tickets were advertised at $165 and a compulsory surcharge is false and misleading advertising. It was waived when challenged.