London’s Oeno House is an elegant toast to fine wines

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.

While Oeno has offices and meeting spaces in London, Bordeaux, Tuscany, New York, Madrid and Munich, Oeno House is their first retail space which opens 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. 

“At a time when luxury retail and hospitality is changing at such a pace, Oeno House provides the brand with a fresh, contemporary concept for its first physical home open to the public. In keeping with the times, the versatile space fulfils multiple functions, allowing Oeno to welcome existing clients and introduce new customers and guests to all that the brand has to offer,”   says Chris Dewar Dixon, Founder, Studio Four IV, which designed Oeno House.

“The aim of Oeno House is to create a luxury wine space where all our clients can visit, admire, buy and taste wines. Our dedicated wine tasting room and the terrace will enable us to give customers a 360-degree experience, ” says Luisa Martinello, General Manager, Oeno House

A contemporary take on wine tasting

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, but 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.

“With Oeno House, we would like to create a bridge between first-class wine producers and the end consumers. Our welcoming, modern retail space will be supported by interactive service. We want to bring the premium bottles to life by getting away from the often too formal context in which they are usually presented to the public. We want everyone to feel welcome and at ease whatever their level of wine knowledge. Our aim is to bring a dash of luxury to everyday life,” adds Luisa Martinello, explaining the store concept .

Store layout

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.

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. It also provides a space Oeno can host tastings for invited guests in collaboration with their brand partners.

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.