That’s A Great Rack!

Whenever a craze washes over a demographic there is always the swathe of accessories that follow suit, no matter what the fashion of the generation is.  One only has to look at the iPhone and iPad hysteria going on right now to see that the number of phone and pad cases, keyboards, decorative play things and other accessories that go with the devices has exploded. The same is true for Angry Birds, just look at the number of clothes, slippers, underwear etc that has come along with the game, not to mention the proposed theme park. Wine, one of Hong Kong’s current and hopefully permanent crazes, is no different with a wealth of fridges, stoppers, enomatic machines and cellars available to the wine lover looking to add sophistication to owning a few bottles of decent wine.

So, I, like many others when I got into wine drinking at home (admittedly a fairly long time ago!) scoured the country to find wine racks so I could set up a mini cellar storage system in my house, for wines that I did not want to store in a proper cellar or fridge, but were there on hand to be consumed within 2 to 3 days of having purchased the product itself.

It was not a particularly easy task. I knew what I wanted but the racks were hard to find and when I did find them, they were not the best (you know those wooden ones that you self assemble that after taking home you realize that the holes are smaller than the wooden spokes and you spend hours hammering the spokes into the hole, only to find out that you can’t get them back out again). So I was particularly happy to find the “Multi Wine Rack” just last week a rack system for the home that’s ergonomic, lightweight, durable and extremely easy to assemble.

I met up with its creator and designer Kelvin Law yesterday to find out more about the product and the inspiration behind creating such a simple, but pleasing, product. Kelvin is a lover of wine, in particular Australian and South American wines and he told me that he just wanted to design a simple, lightweight wine storage system for the home so that wines he liked could be laid down for a few days in an easily accessible place. With Hong Kong houses and apartments being the generally small size they are, many do not have space for larger, more cumbersome storage systems, so the concept of the “Multi Wine Rack” was born.

Kelvin was originally approached by a French client to create plastic moulds for the wine accessory business and, after creating a display box for one of the world’s best known Champagnes, he decided to give the expansion plan a go and designed the racks for home use.

He also wanted to make sure it was as much fun as it was easy and simple to use, so instead of it just being in one solitary colour, it’s available in numerous colours and can be set up according to country – either of the wines you have or of the country you call home. I thought that was a great idea to be able to have different colour coded storage systems in your own home, segregated by national colours.

The racks weigh just 150g per unit and each unit is sold separately and they are extremely good value for money – I’ve gotten so used to not using the word cheap as many people associate the word with quality, but it is cheap in terms of the amount it costs. I think these should be sold in all supermarkets and wine stores across the territory – or even used as gifts with purchases of certain bottles – as they are a great addition to the kitchen at home and for those who have no idea where to put the wine after they’ve bought it….here’s the answer. The racks are also environmentally friendly by being made from recyclable alluminium and plastic – the box is recyclable too.

I think these are pretty cool, make pretty good gifts and, with their simple packaging and ‘easy to store on a shelf’ look, means they should be made available to the wider retail public on shop shelves in the near future.

For more information on the product, or if you would like to get in touch with Kelvin then please contact them at sales@eurodesignmold.com or check out the pictures and links on their blog http://www.eurodesignmold.blogspot.hk/

Pictures reproduced with the permission of Euro Design Mold.