WILD BOY TURNED WINE MAN
CREATES ART YOU CAN DRINK
In recent years, the traditionally genteel world of wine cellars has been given a shake-up by Mark Dickens, an eccentric ex-pink-haired rock bass player-turned-gamekeeper-turned-designer, who was born in a supermarket, gigged with 80’s rock legends and studied art with Damien Hirst before being seduced by wine. Dickens, Co-Owner and Creative Director at Spiral Cellars, and the creative brain behind Tesco’s ‘Every Little Helps’ rebrand in 2002, personally sprinkles magic dust over each and every bespoke wine cellar design the brand has installed since 2015.
Mark’s passion for filling homes with stashes of wine as central design features has resulted in some really rather unexpected creations. Never one to shy from a challenge, Mark and his team have an international reputation for creating wine cellars costing from £50,000 to £400,000 that turn the mundane into the marvellous, for clients that number business titans, fund managers, heads of state and celebrities. Whilst NDAs means ‘mum’s the word’ on many clients, Dickens is happy to concede that “many of the most lavish creations are for clients who don’t even drink wine.”
Previous projects range from a disused elevator, a broom cupboard and even “a little used swimming pool” to an epic underground three-room wine complex: “a public room leading to a private collection, off which was a final dedicated tasting space – it was the ultimate wine man-cave labryrinth …”
However, the smaller projects are just as fun as the large ones. Transforming a walk-in guest room shower, Mark quips “the client deemed his guests to be fragrant enough, and lets face it, what would you prioritsie, fresh smelling guests or a place to keep one’s Pomerol?”.
Mark is keen to stress that creating jaw-dropping wine spaces involves more than just creative juices. A tremendous amount of technical and practical cellaring knowledge is also required around structure, cooling and air flow. “For example, a shocking fact for the unitiated is that the weight of the wine displayed on an average wine wall is more than that of a cow.
Tell your builder that you intend to hang cows on the wall and he might decide to build it a different way! Seeing a wall of Burgundy fall over would be quite upsetting.” Dickens remembers seeing “a competitor’s cooling solution that heated a cellar to over 40 degees. The alcohol boiled in the bottes until they exploded or pushed the corks out!” Few architects or designers seem to really understand the vital engineering behind creating the right climate. ”If a wine room isn’t the right temperature and humidity, it’s not a wine room, it’s just a room.”
So what’s behind the success of Spiral Cellars’ breathtaking wine room designs? As a wine collector himself, Mark puts it down to “love of wine, an understanding of a collector’s needs, and fresh, out of the box thinking.” …Of course, the most important factor of all is discretion, and confidentiality.
Spiral Cellars International Design Consultancy – The savvy option for those seeking a Spiral Cellars designed wine room, without the full service price tag. Spiral Cellars design bespoke wine cellars or display walls, individually tailored to a client’s requirements, and create a highly detailed set of drawings and specifications. Spiral Cellars’ registered supplier network can then price, or the client has the freedom to source the manufacture and fitting elsewhere.
Spiral Cellars Designs include all the vitals, from cellaring layouts, bottle displays, materials, finishes to the all important climate control. The service is ideal for international projects and those including a wine cellar as part of a larger build project .
International Design fees vary dependent on project, up to around £30,000 but small domestic projects start at around £8,000.
Spiral Cellars range can be viewed online at www.spiralcellars.com
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