Masseto, quality beyond the bottle: to the winery the “In/Architettura Toscana Award” 2020

The new Masseto cellar, a masterpiece of architecture shaped in blue clay and home of the famous wine – the flagship of the wine galaxy controlled by the Frescobaldi Family– has won the “In/Architettura Toscana Award” 2020, winning the award for best “new construction over 5 million euros” and the “Special Willis Towers Watson Award” in the “new construction” category. Two awards that “certify” the quality of the work of the architect Hikaru Mori from the ZitoMori design studio, to whom Masseto, led by its director Axel Heinz, commissioned the new cellar inaugurated in April 2019.
From the project signed by ZitoMori was born an underground building, reminiscent of the sacred temples of antiquity, and whose technological impact has been reduced to a minimum. The architectural frame of the cellar has been realized with concrete cast in situ. Inside, clean lines in glass and steel predominate, balanced by long rows of oak barrels. The large, rough, carved surfaces are the symbol of the extraction process from which the work was created, while the openings in the walls allow a glimpse of the vertical profiles of the unmistakable blue clay that characterizes the soil of this vineyard. In the heart of the structure, in the Masseto Caveau, rest the wines of the estate. Here, there are bottles of every vintage since 1986, each supported by its own “suspended cradle” in stainless steel mesh. A creation in perfect symbiosis with the surrounding hills and vineyards.