National Wine Centre in Adelaide highlights technology, varieties and styles of wine from Australia's 65 regions

The National Wine Centre's design by Cox Grieve Gillett featured distinctive wine barrel-shaped exterior and rammed earth walls.
Image courtesy National Wine Centre

The National Wine Centre of Australia in Adelaide opened in 2001 as a public and tourism exhibition of winemaking and its industry in South Australia and beyond. It presented an interactive permanent exhibition and museum of winemaking, highlighting technology, varieties and styles of wine.

Visitors had the chance opportunity to taste and compare wines from Australia’s 65 regions. The centre offered a wine discovery journey, sommelier-hosted tastings from the country’s largest selection of Australian wines or a masterclass. The largest open-air cellar in the southern hemisphere added to the 18,000 bottles in the centre’s wine collection.

The wine centre building, at the eastern end of North Terrace, Adelaide, in the east parklands and next to Adelaide Botanic Garden, was designed by Cox Grieve Gillett architects using distinctive wine barrel-shaped exterior and rammed earth walls, large wooden beams, shaped glass and brushed aluminium interior. Rows of grapevine outside show seven varieties of grapes. 

The wine centre’s development by premier John Olsen’s Liberal state government was clouded by controversy and labelled as a white elephant by the Labor opposition and opposed by city parklands preservationists. It proved to be too small for an original intended use as offices for the wine industry.

After problems with funding, management and profitability, the wine centre’s operation were handed to Adelaide University in 2003 on a 40-year lease. It was used for some of the university's oenology courses, and students research.