The one-of-a-kind wine tower you saw on TV appears nightly at Aureole, the Charlie Palmer restaurant at Mandalay Bay.
The $1.2 million structure is 15 feet wide, 15 feet deep, and 42 feet tall, and built of steel and laminated glass. It holds about 1,000 wine bins with up to 9,000 bottles and is temperature (59 degrees Fahrenheit) and humidity controlled and lit from within.
You can get a good look at the wine tower and restaurant as you enter Aureole and cross a bridge that's 25 feet above the floor. A staircase winds around the wine tower as you descend to the dining area.
You might see a black-leotard-clad "wine angel" retrieving a bottle, restocking bins, or taking inventory. These are lithe women (mostly professional dancers, rock climbers, or acrobats) in black cat suits who are attached by cables to four pulley systems, one for each of side of the tower. They rappel up and down the tower's seven levels, controlling their movement with computerized joysticks; harnesses hold the bottles they retrieve.
The angels are in constant communication with Aureole's wine steward via cordless microphones; the steward's mic is hidden in his tie. The sommelier oversees the tower and two wine cellars. The rare-wine cellar holds older reds at 55 degrees, while the cold room keeps Champagnes and whites just below 40 degrees. It's a very sexy piece of eatery theater designed by Adam Tihany.
(Tihany is a 59-year-old architect from Transylvania who was raised in Israel and educated in Italy. He's known as one of the world's pre-eminent hospitality designers; he's done the interiors of more than 300 restaurants and boutique hotels. Since 1993, he's designed seven restaurants in Las Vegas, including Aureole, Cravings Buffet at the Mirage, Osteria del Circo, Le Cirque, Bouchon, and Spago.)
Tihany says that his inspiration for the wine tower was the movie Mission Impossible.
Photographs appear courtesy of MGM Mirage.
