MADISON WINE
The owner of Madison Wine enjoys wine drinking as much as vintages-and-rare collection. With more than 3,000 labels mainly from Bordeaux and Burgundy, we were challenged to recreate a modern “wine cave”housing his collections as well as showcasing the merchandize.
Taking clues from a conventional barrel vault wine cave, we considered the wine shelving as elements defining the interior space instead of merely built-in millwork or furniture pieces. With the requirement to design a “flatwine shelving” where bottles are upstandingand an “angled wine shelving” where bottlesand boxes are tilted, we conceived these two facing wine shelving at the entry Wine Gallery based on various visual control planes with the intention to force a converging “enter the cave” experience.
Material-wise we specified aged whiskey oak wood for shelving frames, veneer bricks for wall surfaces, and fire clay bricks for flooring, intended to use traditional materials in contemporary means while giving warmth to the 24-7 air-conditioned space. Once walking beyond the Wine Gallery, the space opens up to a wine fridge wall and custom-dimensioned display shelving for wine books, special size bottles, designers’ decanters, and rate wine cases and box sets. We cladded display coves and shelving with mirror-finished rose gold panels and specified lighting fixtures and ironmongery in similar finish as accent color and highlights.
While temperature at the ground floor Wine Gallery intends to be lower for wine storage, the VIP Lounge and Tasting Room on the intermediate and second floors offer warmer environment for wine enjoyment, dinner catering, social activities, and casual business meetings. The spacious Tasting Room features an 8-meter long tasting table with Afghan gold granite top and an ethanol-fueled fire place at the table end. The VIP Lounge is a cozy “Living Room” for the Owner and exclusive members’ use, with vintage leather furniture, dimmed lighting, also a fireplace where guests can see the fire at the stair landing outside the Lounge.
The 310 sm flagship retail store catered to the Owner’s various original demands, including retail space for 3,000 labels at the Wine Gallery, private collection at the wine fridge, private lounge for personal and exclusive use, spacious tasting room for larger group gathering, as well as back-of-house areas including administrative office, staff lounge, and storage. To the Owner, Madison Wine is not merely a retail store, but a home to share his passion for wine enjoyment and appreciation.
