Zonin opens hotel for wine lovers in Edinburgh

Italian producer Zonin 1821 has opened its first hotel and bar for wine lovers in Edinburgh, called The Wine Hotel 1821, as well as a Wine Library which it hopes to roll out globally.

Zonin’s Wine House in Edinburgh.

It has been a busy year for Italy’s largest privately-owned wine group. Having launched its ‘Dos Almas’ range from its new Chilean venture at Vinexpo in June, Zonin has stretched north to open what could be described as a small embassy for its wines in Edinburgh.

“Recently the market has become more interested in Italian fine wines, and we were seeing more and more interest in Scotland,” explained vice president Michele Zonin.

“We were talking with our friend, the restaurateur Sep Marini about doing something on wine and then came the opportunity to set up in a very beautiful Victorian house in the centre of Edinburgh.”

Glasgow-based Marini owns the Tony Macaroni chain of 9 restaurants across Scotland.

The Wine House Hotel 1821 is at the top of Leith Walk on Picardy Place with its famous pipe-smoking statue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, who was born here in 1859. Behind its classic New Town façade, the interior is contemporary Italian and designed by the architect Claudio Silvestrin with oak panelling and Venetian marble.

The top two floors have been given over to the hotel with just four rooms, each named after one of Zonin’s Italian estates. The first floor will be used for tastings, cooking demonstrations and winemaker dinners, while the basement has been converted into a bar.

In between, on the ground floor, pride of place has been given to Zonin’s second, unique project, The Wine Library with its shelves full of wine and books.

“The concept behind the library was to have a place furnished and decorated in an Italian style where we could bring all our wines and where clients can feel like they’re in Italy,” said Zonin.

“In addition our wine library will have a great selection of our old wines that people can taste by the glass,” he added.

There is a small Enomatic wine system set into the wall and a Coravin device. All of Zonin’s wines from its nine estates across Italy to its vineyards in Virginia and Chile will be available, as well as various wines the group imports from regions like Australia and Champagne.

The Wine Library

People will be able to buy bottles for drinking there or taking away for a flat £10 margin, in contrast to the 200-300% mark-ups typically charged by the on-trade.

“The idea is to let people taste and enjoy the wine. It’s not really driven by economics, and so far we haven’t had problems from other restaurateurs” said Zonin, who explained how the Edinburgh venue is a prototype to be rolled out to other cities.

The next Wine Library is set to open in Sao Paolo’s main fashion street – Rua Oscar Freire – in December with “at least ten planned for next year,” said Zonin.

“After Brazil we are thinking of Austria and London, as well as main cities in Canada and the US, and we’re also looking at Moscow.”

As Zonin rolls out the ‘Wine Library’ project globally, it is hoped that restaurants, hotels and other spaces will host a Wine Library in their existing premises. They will be tailored to the individual space but will be modelled off the current design, with Claudio Silvestrin still leading the project.