Senior Sommelier

Located in the heart of the CBD, down a historic laneway long associated with eating and drinking well, you’ll find Côte Basque - a restaurant inspired by the culture, spirit, and cooking of the rugged Basque coast.

Following a successful launch, we are searching for a knowledgable Senior Sommelier to join our collaborative beverage team.

Côte Basque is a place for generous food, lively drinks, and thoughtful hospitality. The dining room is one of the city’s most significant heritage restaurant spaces. Once owned by the Pellegrini brothers, and more recently home to Becco, it is a room steeped in nostalgia and layered with stories of Melbourne’s dining history. It has been reimagined, carrying forward the same philosophy as the classic venues before it - warm in texture and colour, understated, and designed for spirited times. Spaces for dining, a bar for drinking, and a private room for celebrations have all been created in harmony with the bones of a building deeply embedded in Melbourne’s culinary story.

The Côte Basque wine list takes inspiration from the kitchen - focused and dynamic, with a balance on benchmark and emerging Australian producers, and cutting a broad swath across Mediterranean and Atlantic Europe. Service is precise but relaxed: we value connection and community.

Work with restaurant professionals who care deeply about quality, provenance, and creating a genuinely welcoming experience for our guests. Ideally, you're confident talking through key European appellations and Australian producers, are conversant with classic cocktails, and have a curiosity to learn and grown in your understanding of the world of wine. Formal qualifications are to advantage; the ability to swiftly distill that knowledge to the charming essentials is a must.

This is an opportunity to join a vibrant new restaurant, helping shape the culture, standards, and rhythm of a venue that feels both fresh and as though it has always been there.

Our Benefits Include:

• Discounts across all Trader House businesses

• Access to internal Wine and Spirit Education Trust Certificates 2 & 3 taught by Leanne Altmann, Group Beverage Director

• Trader House Sessions - masterclasses with chefs and industry leaders (past presenters include Danielle Alvarez, Jung-eun Chae, Trisha Greentree, Dave Verheul)

• Financial wellbeing training programs

• Access to Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training

• Mental Health & Wellbeing workshops

• Diversity & Inclusivity training and workshops

• Employee Assistance Program - a free and confidential counselling service

• Annual staff engagement survey

• Field trips to wineries, distillers, breweries & farms

• Annual staff parties

• Internal and external management training covering a range of topics

• Free flu vaccinations

• Employee referral bonus - paying up to $1000 per successful referral

• A range of discounts across external retail / health & wellbeing organisations

• Great staff meals every day

• Generous tips for kitchen and front of house

To apply, please submit your cover letter and CV addressed to Leanne Altmann and Alex Meikle-Briggs.

About Trader House: Trader House is a collective of restaurants, bars, and specialty retail stores by Melbourne-based chef, cookbook author and columnist Andrew McConnell and photographer Jo McGann. Operating in Melbourne are Gimlet, Apollo Inn, Cutler, Supernormal, Cumulus Inc., Marion, Builders Arms Hotel, Meatsmith Heritage Butcher, Morning Market, and Côte Basque. Trader House also operates Supernormal and Bar Miette in Brisbane.

Trader House is known for restaurants with a strong sense of place, thoughtful design and a focus on seasonal, produce-driven food.