every month charlie’s best customer travels 4,000kms to his store, then refuses to step inside.

Who is the International Man of Mystery (IMM)? It is a question that has been puzzling Charlie Salpietro for years. He knows he has a black American Express card, favours black limousines, and is completely besotted with the 1996 Mount Mary Quintet Cabernet. Charlie however, has never seen his face.

Every month, like clockwork, IMM flies first class from Singapore to Perth. At the airport, he is greeted by a chauffeur and whisked over to Charlie’s Liquor Barons store in Mt Lawley. While IMM stays inside the limousine, his chauffeur scuttles in to collect a standing order of the dozen Mount Mary.

Sourcing this rare back vintage involves a bit of cloak and dagger work in itself. Charlie has to stalk wine auctions and squeeze his contacts to assemble this delightful dozen. For Charlie, that’s part of the joy of being a Liquor Barons. (Whether you’re after the crazy tequila you tried on holiday, or an obscure beer you read about online, your local Liquor Barons has the passion and power to track it down for you.)

Charlie dreams about the day IMM ventures into his store. Not so that he can do a ‘Stig’ and unmask his identity, but rather, reveal to IMM the joys of his cellar. $1,000,000 in the building, and 30 years in the stocking; heaven isn’t up above, it’s under Charlie’s floor.

As IMM obviously loves layered, complex reds, Charlie would introduce him to Henschke Cyril Cabernet, a lush single vineyard estate wine from the Eden Valley; or the refined Giaconda Cabernet Sauvignon, made with absolute precision by mechanical engineer turned winemaker, Rick Kinzbrunner. (Charlie’s cellar is bursting with gems you won’t find in the big chains, that’s because Liquor Barons can buy independently.) For the time being however, that’s all hypothetical.

Rumour has it that after collecting his precious dozen, IMM disappears off to the private dining room of a famous West Perth eatery. Here he indulges in a bottle of the Quintet over lunch, before catching the afternoon flight back to Singapore with his cherished cargo.

Reclusive billionaire? Triad head? Or just too lazy to get out of the car? Charlie may never know.

Unlike the International Man of Mystery, you don’t need to do an 8000km round trip to enjoy Liquor Barons’ service. We have 29 stores conveniently located throughout Perth, each of them owned by guys like Charlie. We’re not a chain, or soulless franchise. We are a co-operative that use our combined buying power to secure you great prices. As each store is independently owned, the owners can tailor their range of wine, beer and spirits to suit the tastes of their community. In Charlie’s case, that means finding the impossible.