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Boutique Wine Store and Hospitality Spaces designed by Studio Four IV.
Multi-award-winning international fine wine investment house, Oeno has opened its very first fine wine boutique and alfresco wine bar Oeno House.
Oeno’s new home can be found in London’s Grade I listed, Royal Exchange, in the heart of the city’s historic financial district. The inspiration behind Oeno House was to create London’s premier fine wine shop and bar where wine enthusiasts and collectors can experience the world’s top wines.
Oeno
Whilst supplying Michelin-starred restaurants and private collectors with fine wines, Oeno also provides a new approach to the fine wine investment market. Their financial analysts and wine experts work seamlessly together to serve their clients, who invest in wines and vineyards around the world. With their company foundation as an investment house, Oeno has what some might think is an unusual retail model, as the boutique is stocked with a range of fine wines and champagnes selected directly from their clients’ portfolios.
Oeno House
While the investment house has offices and meeting spaces in London, Bordeaux, Tuscany, New York, Madrid and Munich, Oeno House is their first retail space. The new concept and its City of London location open up the Oeno brand to city workers and a new community of wine lovers. These customers now have the opportunity to purchase and experience some of the world’s finest wines and champagnes in the brand’s new home.
Spanning three floors, Oeno House is a stylish, multi-functional boutique, where clients and guests can not only buy and enjoy some of the finest wines on the planet, they can also participate in Oeno’s regular events or meet with their account manager to discuss their investment portfolio in a convivial setting. It’s a contemporary take on the traditional wine merchants that provides a warm welcome and an elevated wine tasting experience for both novices and seasoned wine connoisseurs alike.
Ground floor
Taking advantage of the window, the boutique’s designer, Studio Four IV, has created a double-sided, jewel-like display cabinet (refrigerated to the perfect temperature, of course!). A seasonal calendar of window displays will allow for changing presentations to highlight new and interesting vintages as they become available from Oeno’s portfolios.
The boutique’s ground floor and mezzanine provide a welcoming and intimate retail space. Here, customers can find wines cradled on tiered displays, where each bottle is accompanied by a QR code, allowing customers to discover more about the wine’s tasting notes and provenance. Alongside, a vast, gold-framed fridge, that has been specially made for the store, houses their chilled Champagne selection, while a second EuroCave cabinet stores wine in ideal conditions. At the back of the boutique, a huge, illuminated slab of onyx provides a stunning backdrop to present sixty bottles of fine wine, which appear to float ethereally in front of the glowing wall.
The boutique will open with a wine list of 700 labels, and Oeno House’s knowledgeable staff are on hand to offer customers expert advice and information. Their one-to-one service, showcasing Oeno’s wines displayed in-store, is complemented by a digital screen that allows staff to share an endless aisle of fine wines, champagnes and spirits from their portfolio.
Making clever use of the space, the ground floor cash-wrap also doubles up as a servery for sampling, events and the alfresco wine bar. Inlaid with marble, it provides an elegant front of house space from which Oeno staff serve their guests. A range of stylish packaging has also been designed commensurate with the brand and the boutique’s premium interior. Bottles are carefully wrapped in branded tissue, before being placed in Oeno brand blue, gold embossed felt bags, ensuring customer’s purchases travel home safely.
To unite the ground floor and mezzanine spaces, Studio Four IV commissioned a beautiful Bocci chandelier. Made up of nineteen blown glass spheres, the organic composition creates an illuminated canopy of rich yellow, gold, amber and claret hues that provide a contemporary nod to the diverse collection of wines and vintages represented in the boutique.
First Floor
The designers have also created a quirky ‘wine’ balustrade. This eye-catching architectural feature wraps around the curve of the mezzanine, drawing the eye and suggesting that there’s more of Oeno’s wine portfolio for customers to discover upstairs. Adding natural light to the mezzanine, an original window has been opened up. This also provides customers with a spectacular view over the Royal Exchange’s central interior courtyard.
Second Floor
Oeno House’s second floor is home to a private meeting and tasting room, which features a ten-seater stone-topped table, a further servery and a perfectly-scaled version of the Bocci chandelier found downstairs. With the feel of a private club, it provides a relaxed and luxurious environment for appreciating Oeno’s fine wines and nurturing business relationships.
Outdoor Terrace
Throughout the summer months, Oeno House opens up its outdoor terrace. Serving light bites, alongside wine by the bottle and by the glass, the alfresco space is the perfect spot to meet with friends and colleagues and enjoy Oeno’s wines in the most unique surroundings.
Studio Four IV
Boutique design agency Studio Four IV has an international design portfolio built by its founding partners, Andy Bone, Chris Dewar-Dixon and Baz Bhasin. Each has over 30 years in the creative industries, combining their branding, interior design and architectural skills. Many of the world’s most influential luxury brands have benefitted from their input, including Emporio Armani, Mandarin Oriental, Mulberry, The East India Company, Raffles Hotels and Resorts and numerous project for Harvey Nichols in London, Doha, Hong Kong, Baku, Ankara and their Beauty Bazaar concept in Liverpool.
by AN shopfitting magazine no.164 ©
