The Chandon Greenpoint Brasserie in Victoria’s Yarra Valley has been re-imagined and re-designed by leading designers Hecker Phelan & Guthrie.

Nestled in the captivating Yarra Valley, one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious wine regions, Greenpoint was chosen by Moët & Chandon in 1986 as the ideal location for their first Australian vineyard and winery – Chandon Australia.

With distinctive architecture, inspired by the caves of the French champagne houses, panoramic vineyard views and distinctive, world class wines, the Chandon winery at Greenpoint has become a leading tourist destination with more than 100,000 visitors every year.

Pivotal to the visitor experience is the Greenpoint Brasserie, where guests can enjoy Chandon’s wide portfolio of sparkling and still wines and food to match. It was the winery team’s desire to re-invent this food and wine paring experience that was the starting point for the project.

“The Greenpoint hospitality centre has a very strong architectural expression,” says Hamish Guthrie, designer and partner with Hecker Phelan & Guthrie. “We had to respect that, but freshen up the spaces so that they work with the new food and wine approach that Chandon has adopted. The food and wine experience is very modern and casual chic, so our approach was to create a sense of informality, providing people with lots of ways they can enjoy the food, the wine, the brand.”

With the Chandon team, Hecker Phelan & Guthrie set about breaking the interior down into a series of spaces, encouraging people to navigate through the interior and create their own wine and food adventure with casual, brasserie-style food and exciting wine pairings.

“We broke the food offer down into a series of market stalls; an oyster bar, a cheese bar and charcuterie-style food bar,” says Guthrie. “There is a sense of theatre in all those experiences, where the selection and serving of the food is a kind of performance. The approach is deliberately pared back – we’ve brought the kitchen to the front of house, if you like. The idea is that people really interact with the staff. ”

The interior direction creates a more modern, rustic chic, provincial experience; white marble surfaces for a casual kitchen feel and timber to create warmth and texture. There are also lots of herbs in pots and greenery to bring the landscape indoors. As Guthrie points out, “The vista is incredible but you want people to feel comfortable in it. We’ve used large commercial tables at high and low levels to create groupings of people, and warm, real materials to encourage a casual atmosphere. And the wine is always the focus. Bespoke wine racks and label displays are the main feature.”

Says Robert Remnant, Regional Vice-President, Estates & Wines: “The Greenpoint hospitality centre is the heart and soul of our business, because it is where our customers make a personal connection our wines, our story, our terroir.

Hecker Phelan & Guthrie understood our vision to provide more intimate and relaxed spaces to nurture a relationship between food and wine, heightening the whole dining experience and enabling our sparkling and still wines to be showcased in an optimal atmosphere.”