The Wine Master

The newest spot to sip your Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Merlot with some smashing food curated by celebrity Chef Sarah Todd is The Wine Rack which opened its doors to Mumbai at High Street Pheonix. Conceptualized by Ashish Dev Kapur, The Wine Rack boasts of an extensive wine collection of over 300 wines? ?sourced from across 35 regions. The restaurant is also the first in Mumbai to have a wine shop within the venue. Designed by Freddy Birdy, the space is segregated into three separate areas to make the space look more cosy and intimate, yet not lose the bigness of the space by having the rooms seamlessly blend into one another, giving the customer options of where she/he would choose to be. The seating points are broken up in the three different rooms. They encompass communal dining in a celebratory way in the main bar room, a massive curved sofa in the front room with tiny cocktail tables, and a beautiful back room with soft leather couches to sink into with a blackboard mural behind it.

“The inspiration of The Wine Rack is a wine bar that could be anywhere geographically, be it Paris or Florence or Nice. The special requirements that were kept in mind while designing the space were that it had to be modern and stylish, yet have a beautiful warm, cosy and intimate feel at the same time. The use of various textures, from the rough slate floor to the distressed concrete walls to the glamorous old world mural to the modern leather couches to the sexy intimate lighting, all contribute to creating the mood of the bar,” explains Freddy. Hence, the long mural lining one whole wall, inspired by the European old masters painterly style, coupled with the yellow round lights that float around it, transports you to a place of glamour, mystery
and chic.

The look was also inspired by the old mill location it resides in. Therefore, once can gaze endlessly at the beautiful high ceilings, the curved archways, the distressed concrete walls, the huge cast iron rafters holding up the ceiling, the communal table, the industrial wine racks on the walls. The Wine Rack, which runs across an entire wall of the bar is keeping with the industrial look in black cast iron and wooden slabs. It houses a variety of wines from vineyards as diverse as France, Italy, South America, Australia and India. As for the food, some absolute delights are Sarah’s take on Indian street food which include Chettinad Vada Pav with Pineapple Relish, Sev Puri meets Bangkok, Raan Kolapuri, Kulcha Platter and more.

Some more images…