No prizes for guessing the stars of new CBD shop Wine Flowers. Sophie Button – who’s behind wine label Commune of Buttons alongside winemaker brother Jasper – is bringing Basket Range to the city with the new cellar-door-and-florist, which opens on Pirie Street today.
It’s the only public facing venue for the Commune of Buttons brand since The Summertown Aristologist (co-owned by Jasper) and its cellar door closed last year – save for occasional open days at its Basket Range winery.
“We love doing it and it’s always really nice to have the face-to-face stuff but it’s tricky – we only do it twice a year – so we thought, ‘How do we get more face-to-face time?” says Sophie, who also co-founded two of Adelaide’s best community wine events, Basket Range Festival and Ute Boot.
“[Ute Boot] was about producers coming to the city, cellar door prices, having a chat, buying wine, just bringing people [together],” says Sophie, who wants to do the same with Wine Flowers. “I’m a festival organiser so I’m all about people and community coming together. If it’s through wine, then so be it. If it’s with flowers, then great.”
Commune of Buttons will be pouring its wares every Wednesday to Saturday, from December 4 to 21. There’ll also be tastings and bottles for sale by friends Borachio, Ochota Barrels and Basket Range Wine, with a different guest winemaker in residence each week.
“We always talk about doing fun things together,” says Sophie. “We love working together. It’s always really easy. We have similar ideas about what it is we do and why we do it, which makes it pretty cohesive.”
In keeping with the cellar-door vibes, there are tables made of halved, painted wine barrels; and a communal tasting table in the middle of the room. For any curious onlookers wondering what’s inside, the frontage is plastered with two giant wine bottle illustrations by Billie Justice Thomson.
The flowers (and plants) come from landscape designer and plant stylist Emma Sadie Thomson of EST and Ensemble. She’s also Jasper’s partner, and the flowers are cultivated on the Button property. “In December, the blooms up here are really beautiful,” says Sophie. “Emma has a flower market garden, which she uses to restock places around the city, but we often have excess … So it was about bringing a piece of our farm to the city.”
There’s also a retail section stocking EST gardening tools and plant care items; quirky, colourful ceramics by local maker Cate Jones; and a range of vintage glassware. “We thought it would be a lovely addition to a Chrissy table,” says Sophie.
It’s a place to pick up a wine, a locally made Christmas gift and a pot plant or flowers – then stick around for a glass or two, paired with free aperitivo like “Gildas and chippies”. “Food and wine are kind of inseparable and we all agreed very quickly that if you buy a glass of wine, you should get something to have with it for free,” says Sophie. “Just to enjoy that moment”.
She acknowledges the industry is in a challenging place right now, but “even if things aren’t so good, you can come out and have a glass of wine and a chat,” she says. “I think doing fun things is always important.”
While the venue (a Renew Adelaide space) will operate as a pop-up at first, it’ll reopen in February in time for Fringe season for knock-offs and maybe the occasional streetside barbeque (keep an eye on the Instagram account for more information).
Wine Flowers
Shop 6, 189–211 Pirie Street, Adelaide
Hours:
Wed & Thu 11am–8pm
Fri & Sat 11am–9pm
