Chester Osborn: I woke up and drew the whole d’Arenberg Cube design on the kitchen bench in about 20 minutes

I’m not saying the d’Arenberg Cube is the only reason for McLaren Vale’s recent surge, writes Chester Osborn. But they won’t let me pay for meals anymore.

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The idea of the d’Arenberg Cube came about late in 2003 because we needed a bigger tasting room, office space and more restaurant room.

We were going to build an old colonial-type building around the d’Arry’s Veranda restaurant. But I thought we needed something really iconic that represented d’Arenberg.

I figured that, because our label names are such a puzzle to work out, and wine is such a puzzle to work out, I should build the most iconic puzzle – the Rubik’s cube.

One day, I woke up and drew the whole design on the kitchen bench in about 20 minutes.

The design was still difficult to visualise, so I found some square plastic containers and built a model, which we still have on display.

The board at d’Arenberg was not too keen on the plans at first. My father thought it would be impossible to build.

So I spoke to my friend James Sarah, from Sarah Constructions, who linked up with an architect and got on board.

It took a year to get planning approval.

See inside the remarkable d’Arenberg Cube

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But then the GFC hit, so we put the building design on hold.

We finally started building in 2015.

The construction wasn’t easy, given the nature of the building, and we changed the plans around as we were building but it all came together in the end.

At first, I think it was difficult for many to visualise the ground floor, which is the Alternate Realities Museum. But I thought, if a picture paints 1000 words, a sculpture must paint a million more.

So I went ahead with it to create something really unique.

We didn’t ever discuss the d’Arenberg Cube restaurant when we were building. It wasn’t intended to be such fine dining until we found head chef Brendan Wessels and decided to go the whole hog.

We changed the restaurant layout from functional to much more high-end degustation. We won Gault & Millau’s best Australian Regional Restaurant and No. 1 South Australian restaurant this year.

The Dali exhibition running at the moment has been enormous for us. We have had people from all over SA and interstate and even overseas visiting. I have a friend who oversaw the exhibition when it was in Sydney, and it only took a few weeks from our initial discussions to secure the sculptures. The Cube and Dali artworks work well together.

Last week, we unveiled the 6m statue Triumphant Elephant in front of the Cube. The exhibition adds something else to the whole experience of visiting d’Arenberg.

When we first started to build back in 2015, Tourism Research Australia figures showed the number of visitors to McLaren Vale was about 180,000 a year. The figures now show McLaren Vale with about 400,000 a year.

I can’t claim it is all because of the d’Arenberg Cube, because there is so much to see in the region and many new cellar doors opening. But when I do go into McLaren Vale, restaurateurs don’t let me pay for meals because they say we don’t have to close in winter any more.

Locals of McLaren Vale are very supportive of one another and we have great pride in our region.

There are three luxury hotels planned for McLaren Vale and they will hopefully be opening soon. There will be hundreds of extra beds available in the region and that can only be good for all businesses in the area.

Chester Osborn is Chief Winemarker and Viticulturalist at D’Arenberg and a speaker at the Southstart conference on November 20 and 21.