The National Wine Centre is an architectural treat, but what it holds inside is the real attraction. Guests can extend their knowledge of Australian wine styles by tasting fine Australian wines, or enjoying a meal from the seasonal tapas menu in the ground floor Cellar Door. The National Wine Centre experience is perfect for everyone from the complete novice to the wine connoisseur.
The National Wine Centre is designed to provide a focus and symbol for the Australian wine industry, symbolizing its tradition and quality in a venue that combines appreciation of food and wine in a beautiful landscape. The Wine Centre is a celebration of simple materials timber, earth and glass reflect the good things in life, wine and food. They have been used to create a landmark building of civic scale and soaring volumes. Movement through and around the buildings is a key feature of the Centre, with a wide entry ramp leading over First Creek, along the side of the industry offices and into the main building, which evokes the spaces found within wineries. The curved courtyard overlooks and carries light into the subterranean cellar. In turn, the vat-like shapes of the exhibition halls, surrounded to invite enquiry, project over the courtyard.
With progression through the building the materials become more refined, paralleling the process of making wine. The relatively course materials found at the beginning change into finer proportions and smoother textures. The scale of the spaces likewise progresses from the public to the personal, from the scale of production to the intimate level of wine appreciation. This journey ends in the tasting room. Elevated to give privacy and a sense of detachment, with broad views of the Botanic Gardens and the vineyard.
