Visit any wine tasting room, and you’ll know that temperature-controlled storage, crystal glasses, and ornate oak-barrel furnishings are all par for the course. Rarely, however, does the tasting begin by popping the trunk of a car before you start popping bottles.
Lexus is changing that. Unveiled at this year’s annual SEMA show in Las Vegas, Lexus’ ES 350 concept car is a luxury wine tasting room and 3.5-litre engine sports car rolled into one.
The car’s Pinot Noir-colored paint job is the first, subtle indicator of its vinous modifications, Digital Trends reports, but It’s when you pop the trunk that things start to get really interesting.
Within its 472 litres of boot space, Lexus has integrated a temperature-controlled wine storage compartment, big enough for six bottles. Next to the cooler sits a separate compartment, with space to hold four large wine glasses.
The oak-clad trunk comes complete with decorative wine barrels, and a fold-out table for the fanciest tailgating imaginable. There’s room for a seventh bottle of wine in a cut out on the left side of the trunk, just in case.
Inside, the wine-themed modifications continue with wine glasses stitched into the headrests, and a floormat made of wine corks on the passenger’s side.
If this all sounds like your dream car, sadly, it will have to remain just that for now. Cars displayed at the SEMA show are usually just quirky concepts, so don’t expect to see Lexus fitting out their road cars with wine coolers anytime soon.
