Antinori in Chianti Classico, Petra and Rocca di Frassinello, the top of the architecture-wine blend

The combination of wine and architecture is nothing new, but in recent years the meeting between stararchitects and wine entrepreneurs has given rise to real cathedrals in every corner of the world. Starting from Italy, of course, where according to “Architectural Digest”, one of the most important magazines in the world of architecture, there are three of the nineteen most beautiful design wineries: “Antinori nel Chianti Classico”, in San Casciano Val di Pesa (Florence), designed by Marco Casamonti of Studio Archea Associati and inspired by the cuts of Fontana, was inaugurated at the end of 2012, becoming the new headquarters of the Antinori family, now in its twenty-sixth generation of winemakers, is a perfect example of integration into the territory, which earned him, in 2014, the “Building of the Year” award; “Rocca di Frassinello”, a Maremma outbuilding (we are near Giuncarico, in the municipality of Gavorrano) of the Chianti brand Castellare di Castellina, boasts the prestigious signature of Renzo Piano, which is appreciated above all in the industrial elements, such as the rectangular tower above the cellar reflecting the light inside; “Petra Winery”, the Suvereto winery of the Terra Moretti Group, designed by the Swiss architect Mario Botta, which brought some of its distinctive architectural elements to the province of Livorno: the cylindrical shape, reminiscent of that of the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco) and the roof garden, similar to that of the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Evry, in France.
With the other wineries, you can really travel from one corner of the world to another, starting from Templeton, in California, where we find the “Epoch Estate Wines” by Lake|Flato Architects, while in Napa Valley you cannot miss the winery of “Trinchero Napa Valley”, born from the collaboration between designer Erin Martin and the San Francisco-based architects’ studio BAR Architects.
Not far away, in Calistoga, there is “Clos Pegase Winery”, built in 1987 on a project by Michael Graves, winner of the competition wanted by the property of the Californian winery and supervised by the Museum of Art of San Francisco. The “home” of “Opus One”, a highly-regarded Napa Valley brand designed by Scott Johnson of Johnson, Fain & Pereira, is also one of the addresses on the agenda. Back in Old Europe, Spain is practically a national monument “Bodegas Ysios”, built on a project by Calatrava in 2001, with its unique wavy roof.
“Marqués de Riscal” is no less important, as it has focused on a visionary like Frank Gehry for its “house of wine”, while “Bodegas Portia”, in the Ribera del Duero, signed by the Foster + Partners studio and inaugurated in 2010, is a hymn to modernity. Finally, closing the circle and returning to Rioja, “R. López de Heredia”, for the 125 years of history of the company, in 2006, has decided to treat itself to a “restructuring” designed by Zaha Hadid: a parallelepiped with a triangular base that houses a wine shop and a tasting room.
Another reference name for the world of architecture, Christian de Portzamparc, is the creator of the new stylistic appearance of a legendary company such as “Château Cheval Blanc”, a brand from Saint-Émilion (Bordeaux). In Portugal, on the other hand, “L’And Vineyards” should be noted, where the white typical of the buildings of the Alentejo Region, in the declination of the Promonotiro studio in Lisbon, is the master, while in the Douro Valley “Niepoort Winery”, by Austrian Andreas Burghardt, which takes up the shapes and colors of the company’s vineyards, is not to be missed.
Flying to South America, in Chile stands out “Lapostolle Clos Apalta”, a bird’s nest on six levels, designed by Amercanda Architects, in wood and glass, overlooking the vineyards of the French company, but also worth the trip “Vik”, the giant winery designed by Smiljan Radic, at the center of the large property planted with vines, entirely underground: stand out only a large and low structure and a sort of artificial lake with water cooling the production plant of the cellar.
Not far away, in Argentina, in Mendoza, there is “O. Fournier Winery”, a cellar at the service of the work signed by Bormida & Yanzon. LED lights, high technology, references to African paintings make “Kunjani Wines” unique in South Africa, in the wine-growing region of Stellenbosch, while in Canada, the last stage of this virtual journey, there is “Mission Hill Winery”, in British Columbia, a structure of over 11,000 square meters, designed by the studio Olson Kundig, on which stands a tower of 26 meters that houses a bell of the same foundry as those of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and Sacré Coeur in Paris.