High-End Wine Club Is Coming to Downtown Austin

Wine bar and bottle storage facility WineLair is coming to downtown Austin sometime next year. Located at 323 Congress Avenue, WineLair offers members a place to store valuable bottles of wine under safe conditions, and a venue to taste them.

WineLair is the American branch of the German-based WineBank. There is a WineLair slated for Washington, D.C. too. Members of the private club can visit any of the nine locations in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

WineLair will include vaults to store wine in an optimal climate, insurance, and a bar-area for wine tasting (which includes glasses, decanters, and mineral water). Most locations also include some snacks and a selection of wines available by the glass or by the bottle, with the tab being added to the member’s monthly invoice. The European locations are also accessible to members 24/7.

The Austin location of WineLair is owned by Ron Wight, who also ran Uncorked Tasting Room and Wine Bar, which shuttered in 2015 (a Facebook post from February referred to WineLair as his new project). Every location of WineBank is meant to exude its own specific style, so there is no word on what that will look like for Austin.

WineBank was started in 2009 by Christian Ress, who is the owner of Balthasar Ress vineyards in Germany. Prices aren’t available for the American locations yet, and depend on size and location of the vault, but a 35-bottle vault (the smallest available) in Frankfort is 99€ monthly.

• WineLair [Official]
• WineBank [Official]
• WineLair Austin [Facebook]