What is the d’Arenberg Cube in the McLaren Vale?

The d’Arenberg Cube in the McLaren Vale is a five storey, often psychedelic ‘sensory experience’, with optical illusions, smell tests and weather-dependent music. It’s doing something very different with wine tasting.

Detailed answer: The McLaren Vale, about 45 minutes to the south of Adelaide in South Australia, is one of Australia’s finest wine regions. If you’re a novice on Australian wine, you’ll rarely go wrong giving a McLaren Vale Shiraz as a gift.

There are dozens of wineries in the region that open their doors to visitors. But for something very distinctive, try the internationally-known d’Arenberg near the Onkaparinga River National Park.

d’Arenberg Cube: Winemaker’s whimsy

It may be a business that sells globally, but it is anything but corporate, and the personality of loud-shirted chief winemaker Chester Osborn shines through. This is especially the case in the winery’s latest addition, the d’Arenberg Cube – which is fast on its way to becoming an icon of South Australia.

The Cube is much, much more than a tasting room and a restaurant. It stands amongst the vines, looking like a glass and white cladding, five storey high take on a Rubik’s Cube. On the entrance path, weird music plays. Apparently, this is controlled by the weather – data readings from a weather station are fed into a computer, which interprets them via a soundtrack put together by a local DJ.

Then come the 3D optical illusions, room full of comic book caricature interpretations of the different wines and a genuinely extraordinary ‘fruit and flowers’ room. Here, fake fruit and flowers cover the walls, while all around are bicycle horns attached to glass jars. Visitors put their nose to them, pump the horn, and smell what’s in the jar. Whether that’s cherries, apricot or vanilla…

The idea is to get your sense of smell in fine working order before the tastings on the top level.

The d'Arenberg Cube in the McLaren Vale wine region of South Australia — The d’Arenberg Cube in the McLaren Vale, South Australia, is chief winemaker Chester Osborn’s eccentric take on the wine-tasting experience. Photo by David Whitley/ Australia Travel Questions

d’Arenberg Cube bathrooms

Before that, however, there’s the first floor bathrooms. These are so covered in plants they look jungle-esque. The urinals surprise, too – they’re massive open-mouthed cartoon character faces.

It’s all very silly and perhaps a little too self-consciously wacky for some tastes. But it’s impossible to argue that the d’Arenberg Cube doesn’t offer a very different winery experience.

Other wineries in the McLaren Vale worth visiting include Mitolo Wines, Serafino Wines, the Woodstock winery, Maxwell Wines and Inkwell Wines. The latter offers luxury accommodation made out of shipping containers.