Purple Palate

THE PURPLE PALATE is a great little bottle shop tucked away behind Finbars in Bicentenary Lane Maleny.

This special little bottle shop has been able to expand, due to the departure of the x-ray centre. It has almost doubled its floor space and has room for a greater selection of boutique beers, specialty ciders, ginger beers and hard to find brands of spirits.

Manager Andrew Jones speaks passionately about the quality and range of their specialty winemakers which are his main interest. Andrew moved to Purple Palate five years ago after years of running hotels – 70 hour-a-week roles he found unconducive to family life.

In the hotel industry, Andrew’s wine focus was on retail sales and in the bottle shops it was just about the profit. But he quickly realised that wine was also where the public interest lay, and it was offering great business opportunities.

The more he learned about wine the more committed he was to making this his career focus. Right now Andrew is in the middle of completing a Master of Wine.