This Braddon restaurant took the ACT honours in Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards mid year.

“It’s wine lists like this that titillate and delight at every page turn,” judges said.

“Thoughtful selection means you get a list that has a strong theme to match the cuisine, but isn't limited to a narrow bandwidth, instead offers a global exploration that shows nuance, personality and wines of immense interest and drinkability.”

For owner Pasquale Trimboli, 2018 has been a year where he’s watched diners become more adventurous with their wine choices.

“They’ve become a lot more willing to try off-beat wines and grape varietals,” he says.

“And there’s been a turn to natural and organic wines as well.”

He says the page featuring verticals of the wines of Ken Helm, his rieslings back to 2009 continue to be well received.

At one of his other venues, Mezzalira, there’s a page of Clonakilla shiraz viognier verticals back to 2006 and a five-course Italian tasting menu matched with local Canberra wines, both of which are also very popular.

What he’s drinking now: “Barbarescos are always a treat, wines that are great value, versatile and flexible, they can be as light as you want them to be, or as powerful as any good burgundy. It’s all about the tannins and the structure and how it marries with the food.”

Nick O’Leary, Nick O’Leary Wines

2018 was a successful year for O’Leary. James Halliday gave him five red stars (the highest rating) in his Wine Companion and listed the vineyard as one of the top 10 best value wineries in the country.

And his 2018 White Rocks riesling also took out best white wine of the show at the NSW Wine Awards.

There are expansion plans out at the Wallaroo estate as well. He’s doubling the size of the production facility and planting another five hectares of grapes.

“We can't get enough riesling from the district, we're short and we can't buy it so we have to grow it ourselves,” he says.

O’Leary says it’s been a great vintage for the whole Canberra district.

“Probably one of the best vintages I’ve seen.

“We had really nice, even, weather, we didn't have too many hot days, we had rain at the right times, it was an easy growing season and there was not much disease pressure in the vineyards.

“Varieties were coming off in the order that they should, we didn't have reds and whites coming off the vine in the same week like we did in previous seasons.”

He’s been impressed by all the 20187 rieslings he’s tasted.

“It just shows Canberra district riesling at its best, very pure, sort of lime and lemon flavours coming through, they can be drunk now but they're going to live in the cellar for a long period of time as well.”

What he’s drinking now: “We're big champagne drinkers in our household. We go through a fair bit of champagne, grower’s champagne and anything that we can get our hands on really. I love Clare Valley rieslings as well, I’ll be drinking those over the summer for sure.

Richard Watkins, Bentspoke

Watkins isn’t afraid to admit 2018 has been a testing year. Bentspoke has grown from a staff of 45, employing 30 more people to meet production demands. But there’s no problem that can’t be solved over a few beers.

“As a brewing team we get together and talk about wanting to always enjoy our own beers, it’s an important part of what we do,” he says.

He’s pleased the Canberra brewery is starting to be recognised nationally, in the Beer Cartel 2018 Craft Beer Survey, Bentspoke ranked sixth nationally.

“But at the same time we’ve had better support than ever from the Canberra community.”

From deals with Canberra’s W-League team, to a beer that celebrated our relationship with sister city Wellington, Bentspoke was always in the news.

The Brew Pub in Braddon continues to go from strength to strength as well, with 18 varieties of beer and cider on tap and a menu that continues to surprise.

The zucchini and mint fritters never fail to please nor do the grain crusted hot wings which are coated in malted brewer’s grain

There’s a new beer for summer too, Easy, with a 3.2abv.

“It’s a cleansing ale, an easy drinking mid-strength beer with tropical fruit hop aromas and a clean finish,” Watkins says.

What he’s drinking now: “I’m loving what Stone and Wood are doing, and Balter are making some quality beers. But we’ve got some good beer in our own backyard. Wade Hurley is doing a great job at Capital Brewing making some really interesting beers.”

Toby Angstmann and Claudia Roughley, Underground Spirits

The team at Underground Spirits say 2018 has been a great year, it’s only their second if you can believe that, given their market success and community support.

“We’re enjoying the process of moving from being the new kids on the block to a more established part of the scene,” says Angstmann.

“We've had some great success with our rebranding, with the Canberra focussed labels, and we've been smashed by people who love gin and that’s great.”

He’s enjoying collaborations with local producers, the coffee vodka produced with Bellerophon back in August was a great success and look out for some whiskey produced with the help of local barley and wheat growers.

“We've got some interesting navy strength gin coming in 2019, which will be something different for us and we're looking at potentially playing with some pre-mix stuff as well,” he says.

“We’re growing our line, focussing on quality over quantity, and mixing things up.”

Roughley, the Spirits’ CEO says the company tagline this year was “the spirit of Canberra” and she’s pleased that’s where the company is positioned.

“We’ve got people talking about us,” she says, “people behind us, it does feel like we're the talk of the town at the moment, we're riding high.”

What they’re drinking now: Toby: “For Christmas I’ll be trying the caramel vodka with a bit of cloudy apple juice and a touch of cinnamon.” Claudia: “Gin, gin, gin. The shiraz gin is lovely with soda and ice, a refreshing and invigorating and exciting drink perfect for summer.”