Modern Wine Room

Why hide your favourite bottles down in the cellar? This elegant personal tasting room is designed to show off.

Rather than hiding it away in a cellar, Victoria designer Terry Johal put this ultra-modern wine rack on full display by enclosing it in glass in the centre of a high-tech media room. “I wanted a break from the traditional wood rail and oak barrel elements,” says Johal. Instead, above a pair of slick barstools, he installed an LED-lit wall to back a glowing collection of bottles, all balanced on long pegs of stainless steel. Among the whites and reds, a tablet appears to hover, logging and displaying information about the wine collection. Johal didn’t eschew the wine cellar look entirely, though: a warmly lit sapele-wood bar top and a pebble tile are welcoming natural touches that make an evening spent here, sipping and swirling inside this jewel box of a room, seem irresistible.