Photo of Chester Osborne and the Cube via: http://www.theleadsouthaustralia.com.au/
Just when you think you’ve been everywhere and seen everything, someone comes up with something new! In case you are looking to travel to the newest (and some might say weirdest, or to use a kinder term, most unique) tasting room in the wine world, book your tickets to South Australia and stop by the d’Arenberg Winery in McLaren Vale.
At the winery, you’ll find a plethora of creative wines, ranging from “Lucky Lizard Chardonnay,” the “Feral Fox Pinot Noir” and their range of “Stump Jump” wines, named after a plow that can plow through tree stumps.
If your visit is timed right (sometime in early part of 2017), you’ll also be able to visit their new tasting room—or, as they might prefer we call it, their new tasting cube. What’s a tasting cube, you ask? Well, at d’Arenberg it is a five-story, glass-encased steel and concrete structure inspired by the Rubik’s Cube.
Rendition of the completed Cube via: http://www.theleadsouthaustralia.com.au/
The d’Arenberg Cube is the brainchild of Chester Osborn, the chief winemaker for d’Arenberg and the great-great grandson of founder Joseph Osborn. Chester describes the new cube/tasting room as “an architectural puzzle four modules wide, four high and four deep, is already soaring above the Mourvèdre vineyards in the heart of McLaren Vale.” In addition of offering wines sales and tasting, the cube will host curated art exhibits as a permanent art installation room designed to give the impression of being inside a wine fermenter and featuring the work of Australian artist Jane Skeer to include hundreds of dangling VHS video tapes combined with projections of people treading grapes.
The cube will also feature a restaurant and a rooftop balcony. However, the most interesting feature just might the glass-surrounded “wine fog room,” set to feature a series of large aroma-filled containers attached to bicycle horns designed to “beep” the aromas of wine out to the room.
Some people are referring to the new construction as “Chester’s folly,” and Osborne himself admits that he has given d’Arry, his father, more than a few sleepless nights. But in my humble opinion, he’s going to have folks lining up for a look, a sniff, and a taste of the new d’Arenberg tasting room.
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