Winery, San Casciano

Italy, and especially Italians, appears to be rediscovering the wine culture. Countless initiatives would seem to suggest this, like the annual opening of all wine cellars to the public, wine tastings, guided tours of the wineries and, last but not least, a recent tendency of companies and producers who, to promote their labels and increase their prestige, are turning to the large firms and the stars of the architectural firmament to build their plants, combining aesthetics with functionality. The building by Mario Botta at Suvereto and the Mezzacorona winery by Alberto Cecchetto are just two examples of this trend.

The relationship offers mutual benefits: for their part, the wine producers, some of them international leaders, become the champions and promoters of extraordinary architecture, while the architects use the famous wine brands to improve the quality and prestige of their architecture. This is the case with Marco Casamonti and his Florence-based studio, Archea, and their design for the Antinori winery in Bargino (Chianti). The headquarters of the Antinori company, which boasts branches all over the world, will move to one of the prettiest areas in Tuscany by the year 2008. A plot of fourteen hectares has been allocated for the construction of a plant that will house almost 120 employees and accommodate hundreds of visitors, plus barrels and rooms for tasting, areas for fermentation and bottling, as well as a library and a kindergarten.

The project presented by studio Archea is landscape building, an underground shell that merges with nature. Just two cuts in the land remain visible from the road, two discrete incisions that follow the slopes cut through the hills of one of the most beautiful regions of Italy. The internal structure is completely hidden; almost all of it is below ground, and its numerous vaults echo the surrounding hills with their rhythms and forms. The roof of the building is a grass mantle, covered by vineyards. The rural appearance of the exterior, the miracle of the nectar made from the fruit of the land is thus combined with the sacral appearance that has always been associated with the idea of wine, and that is also evoked by the vaults faced in terracotta.

We wonder whether this landscape-building will be able to add allure to the name of a wine that already carries great prestige and, vice versa, hope that an enlightened client will, in true Tuscan tradition, allow the realization of a project that has all the makings of a 'DOC' building.