With white-attired servers flying inside a 16-metre-tall tower to gracefully retrieve and serve bottles of wine to awe-struck clients, Zurich’s new Radisson Blu has taken wine presentation to new heights. These soaring “angels” perform air acrobatics within a tower constructed to hold 4,000 bottles.
The angels, who are equipped with holding gear and manoeuvred by computer-controlled winches, are accompanied by a LED light show. The wine tower concept was pioneered more than a decade ago by Las Vegas’ Aureole restaurant inside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Radisson Blu built its first tower London at the Stansted Airport property and in February opened the taller and more advanced tower in Zurich, marking the world’s third such tower.
“Guests are astonished and amazed with the angels’ performance,” notes general manager Werner Knechtli. “When we were thinking of something special for the lobby, we wanted to surprise, delight and exceed the expectations of our demanding guests.”
At a price tag of 4 million Swiss Francs, the 27.5-ton wine tower has plenty of “wow” factor, and the acrobatic wine angels add to the excitement. Besides performing artful retrieval of wines from temperature-controlled compartments, the angels perform choreographed show flights to music. Adding to the allure is the ability to book the wine angels to ‘fly’ at meetings or cocktail receptions.