Raise a toast to SA’s stunning wine cellars
Far from being damp and dark spaces, wine cellars are now spacious and luxurious must-have home features. Click here to see inside 20 of SA’s most incredible cellars and wine rooms.
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What’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions a wine cellar? Dark, damp and cold, right?
While historically, wine cellars have been like that, and many would argue that’s it’s the perfect way to store wine, these oft-forgotten spaces are making their way up the home trends ladder.
According to experts, both in interior design as well as real estate, wine cellars are now an increasingly popular feature in homes across SA.
From plush carpets to statement cabinetry, ambient lighting to designer wall racks, when it comes to how a wine cellar is presented, the bar has truly been raised.
Grant Giordano of luxury real estate agency Giordano & Partners said that wine cellars have gone beyond their purpose of being just a storage room.
“While underground cellars have been popular in SA, they are being renovated and expanded to become a meeting place,” Mr Giordano said.
“Traditionally, they have been just cellars to store wines but lately they are becoming an important feature of a luxury home,” he said.
So does having a wine cellar influence the final sale price of a home? “Unequivocally,” Mr Giordano said. “Having a wine room or a wine cellar definitely home adds value to the home.”
Going by the number of house listings on realestate.com.au that feature homes with wine cellars, it seems homeowners are eager to pull out their prized collections from boxes and put them on display.
According to Kiah Austin, interior architect at Scott Salisbury Homes, wine cellars are definitely making a comeback, however, they’re not seen as a typical underground cellar.
“More popular cellars are those that are integrated into the home’s design, such as under the stairs, combined in the kitchen or dining joinery, as a whole room or as a room divider,” Ms Austin said.
“Wine cellars have evolved to where if you have the right airconditioning, temperature control in a concealed space, it can create the same result as an underground cellar,” she said.
If you are seeking inspiration to store and admire your wines, look no further.
Here’s a line-up of 20 of the most stunning home cellars and wine rooms in SA. Pour yourself a glass, sit back and enjoy!
51 Coorara Ave, Payneham South
Created by former owner, Vinomofo co-founder and Mismatch Brewing Co co-owner Leigh Morgan, this wine room does what every good wine room should do – make selecting and drinking wine an experience. The Eurocave system is fully humidified and set behind an automatic glass sliding door and has Vintec fridges and storage space for about 1500 bottles. That would keep us going for a while.
1 Fergusson Square Toorak Gardens
Cellars are dark, right? Dingy, pokey and uninviting, correct? Not at this stunning place at 1 Fergusson Square, Toorak Gardens, which recently sold after only a short period on the market. We can’t help thinking this amazing cellar helped seal the deal, because if it were us buying it, we wouldn’t even bother checking out the other rooms.
19A Whistler Ave, Unley Park.
There are dusty, pokey wine cellars, and then there’s this. Honestly, we don’t know where to start with this place. It’s more like a museum for wine than somewhere to stash them away from the elements. If you’re looking to explore the wonder of wine, this would be the place to do it.
10 Patawalonga Frontage, Glenelg North
Why should your wine collection be tucked away somewhere in the dark? Why should you hide your pride and joy away from the world? Why should it not be the focal point of the home? This home at 10 Patawalonga Frontage home responds with a bold: “Why indeed?”
2 Alpha Rd, Prospect
Some cellars are simply practical – they’re a place to store your wine. You go down into them when you need a bottle and then you leave. But some others are special, as is the case with this masterpiece at 2 Alpha Rd, Prospect. With walls of Bordeaux racking and a table and chairs for tasting, this is the kind of cellar that encourages you to linger a little longer.
14 Williams Rd, Heathfield
This place has featured in a number of our Best SA Homes spreads in recent years and it’s not hard to see why its wine room made our cut. We’ve always felt this place looked like it was straight out of a Bond movie, and this looks like the exact sort of place 007 might want to sip a Martini. How does he have them, you ask? We shouldn’t have to tell you …
35B Devonshire St, Walkerville
Remember when we all felt sorry for Harry Potter for having to live under the stairs? Well, if our house had this sort of a setup under the stairs we’d be electing to live down there too. This wine room is stunning, and a clear talking point as you enter this stunning bespoke home.
9 Mills Tce, North Adelaide
The basement of this North Adelaide home is wine lover’s dream come true. The wine cellar boasts custom-built timber racking and cupboards that can store over 800 wine bottles. Can there ever be too much wine? The answer is no, by the way …
10 Ravenswood Lane, Balhannah
Cellars are the new must-have and they don’t always have to be dug into the ground. This Balhannah property makes room for its enviable collection and provides easy access too. Just pick up a bottle after parking your car and taking it to the living room.
18 Yaralinda St, Dernancourt
A wooden spiral staircase in this Dernancourt home, currently listed for sale, leads to a treasure trove of wines, paintings and more. The cellar has been cleverly designed to make it convenient for the owner of these prized possessions to walk around and admire the collections. With capacity to store 5500 wine bottles, not surprisingly, it comes with its own alarm system.
20 Mindarie St, Port Willunga
To say that this cellar is well-guarded would be an understatement. While the entrance is daunting, the interiors are charming. Housed in a Port Willunga home, the stone walls make this a winner for us.
42 Palmerston Rd, Unley
Three walls of wine are enough to make any wine lover drool, and the sheer space, polished concrete floors and climate control space in this wine room are impressive too. Located on the lower level, and leading into the home theatre, it’s like going to Gold Class at the movies: pick up your drink and head in to see the latest film. We guess that’s what the owners thought too.
64 Childers St, North Adelaide
Hidden beneath a quaint row cottage in North Adelaide is this more than generous two-room cellar comprising 26sq m. Lined with rows of wine storage and shelving that showcases the best drops, and warmed up with a rug, we think this space would be jewel in the homeowner’s crown. Largely left untouched to enjoy the heritage character, the rest of this home has been given a contemporary renovation.
103 Alexandra Ave, Toorak Gardens
An original Queen Anne villa was given a thorough renovation in 2015, designed by Black Rabbit Architecture and Interiors and built by Olde World Homes. This bespoke cellar was part of the transformation. If features an unique 58mm thick 2m-long window that gives the wine room underwater views of the indoor swimming pool. It’s also beautifully finished in stone and timber, and there’s even a chandelier, creating an old world charm. Bring out the whiskey bottle!
212 Stanley St, North Adelaide
If you count the rows and columns, there’s enough space in this wine room to last you a few good years – in fact, there’s capacity for 800 or more bottles. This wine room is bigger than most people’s master bedrooms and has been elegantly finished in Modernist style, with exposed red brick walls, stone-look floor and enough space to sit back and sip your favourite drops in comfort.
267 Woods Hill Rd, Ashton
There are a lot of tunnels around the Hills area and these underground bunkers make for perfect cellaring conditions. This property at Ashton, in the heart of the Hills wine region, has a long corrugate tunnel leading to its cellar and reminds us of the time we visited the Champagne region of France. If you’re a serious wine lover, you’ll want one of these.
519 Torrens Rd, Woodville
Of course, a majestic Queen Anne villa circa 1900 is going to have a real underground cellar, and many of us would have bought it for that very reason. This one measures 4.2m x 2.40m, so there’s plenty enough room to put down a few Grange, Hill of Grace and Jim Barry’s Armagh. And being underground, the cellar’s temperature will be consistent all year round, so drink up.
Hazelwood Park
A home that wins the HIA Home of the Year (SA) for 2021 should have a bespoke wine room. Well, of course it does, and this one takes prime position along the hallway where it’s contents are on show as you walk toward the open plan kitchen/living zone. Featuring a climate-controlled cellar, and finished in glass and timber joinery, there’s even a handy ladder to reach the bottles at the top. This Hazelwood Park home was designed and built by Alan Sheppard Constructions.
Sterling Homes, Gawler St, Lightsview
Wine needs to be stored in optimal conditions, climate-controlled and bottles on their side to avoid any potential oxidisation and so the sediment can settle. Sterling Homes’ Seattle display home at Lightsview showcases how you can do just that and have all your best bottles on view from the entrance. The handy benchseat let’s you sit down and mull over which will be tonight’s choice too.
14a Burlington St, Walkerville
When you walk into a home and a room stops you in your tracks, you know you’ve found something amazing. That’s what happened when visitors saw the wine room at 14a Burlington St, Walkerville, which was the grand prize in the 2019 St John Christmas Home Lottery. Parquetry flooring, climate-controlled and beautiful lit with task lighting, and surrounded by secure glass doors, it perfectly highlights the spirit and wine collection, including a few Penfolds Grange. Just settle back and enjoy.
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