Wine Made Visible

by Ruedi Gerber

We have chosen the highest possible position to make the most of the sun and to be influenced by the beauty of the landscape around us. 

This allows us to work with gravity, to identify exactly where we are, to absorb it and transmit it to the wines we produce. 

We take sunlight and we turn it into the energy that powers our winery.

As our motto just grapes, sunshine and soil says, we go deep into the soil to make sure that it is the earth itself that expresses itself and talks about itself; so that we are in contact with it, we can love it and understand its essence.

We try to use elements from the land, so that it too can express itself.

Accessibility and transparency are absolutes for us: 

There are no secrets! On entering the winery, visitors realise immediately how the wine is made, just by looking around. This provides for participation,  of the mind, body and senses, that become a bridge to our emotions. 

This is how we show you our various tactics and strategies that we use to make our wine and render it visible. 

It is extremely important for us and our workers, therefore, to have a simple work flow: the grapes enter the winery, they are processed and the wine is bottled, like a message sent from this place out into the world.

The long tunnel used for ageing, with its urns and barriques, is liked to  time passing.

It is this very aspect of transformation that represents our story and narration. 

 

WINE TASTING EXPERIENCE

 

 

The Shape of Wine

By Sergio Cavero, architectural department

Architecture is an item used with a high added symbolic value.  

Like wine itself, beyond its utilitarian aspect, it is the vital expression of its creators’ philosophy, of the expertise of all those who have taken part in its production and, lastly, of the culture of those who experience it.

The basis of any great wine is the “terroir”, the territory: and it is for our project too.

To avoid defacing the the gentle curves of the Sequerciani south-facing basin, most of the building will be underground, and will comprise a large circular drum and a curved tunnel that only emerges occasionally, crowned by a tree-lined platform, a true acropolis of plants that emphasises the natural line of the hill tops.

The rear part of the building will naturally extend the escarpment that marks the end of the land, towards the forest. It is therefore a type of geological architecture, based on the landscape's fundamental characteristics, which is transformed without being disfigured..

The decision to build underground allows us to save essential resources such as energy and water. We use the natural freshness of the upper layers, just like the heat from the depths, and their humidity, to air-condition our rooms. The surface of the acropolis allows us to efficiently recover precious rain water, that is then stored in an external basin that is connected to a permaculture plant.

The social dimension of work revolving around wine has a direct influence on the building plan. The drum, with the circular fermenting room in the middle, that acts as a hub to connects all the vinification stages, from harvesting to sale, is the smallest, most efficient shape, but also the one that encourages close, more harmonious relationships among the wine workers. This area is connected to the sky by a ring-shaped zenith window that shows the position of the sun through the hours and seasons.

This opening, a true astronomical clock, links the depths of the earth to the cosmos; like wine, that originates in the darkness of its roots, and then prospers under the rays of the regal celestial body.