The 19 Best Vineyard Designs Around The World
In recent years, more and more of the best vineyards have sought to make a statement not just with their wines but with the design of their facilities, enlisting star architects from Renzo Piano to Zaha Hadid. That means wineries are no longer mere side trips en route to the main attraction—they’ve become destinations in their own right. World-class food and drink, stunning architecture, luxury lodgings, idyllic settings—this is the stuff epicurean dreams are made of. In advance of the grape harvest (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least), AD takes a look at some of the most beautifully designed wineries around the globe. In vino—and *venustas—*verities.
Photo: Mauro Puccini1/19Antinori nel Chianti Classico
Bargino, Italy
antinori.it
Archea Associati devised a winery that disappears into the Tuscan landscape for the Antinori family, which has been in the wine business for 28 generations. The sprawling facility incorporates a striking spiral staircase into its Cor-Ten steel façade and the roof is planted with vines. Circular skylights bring natural light into the hillside structure. The complex also houses the company's offices, a 200-seat auditorium, a restaurant, and a museum.
Casey Dunn Photography2/19Epoch Estate Wines
Templeton, California
epochwines.com
For Epoch Estate Wines, Lake|Flato Architects designed a production facility that fits into the landscape of its York Mountain site. The 17,000-square-foot steel-framed facility has an open-air fermentation space to take advantage of cool nighttime temperatures. The vaulted barrel room is constructed of board-formed concrete and is dramatically lit by two oculi. The tasting room is set in the former York Mountain Winery, which was condemned after an earthquake in 2003. Architect Brian Korte preserved the original redwood beams and utilized stones from the original cellar in the revitalized building.
Photo: Courtesy of Trinchero Napa Valley3/19Trinchero Napa Valley
Napa Valley, California
trincheronapavalley.com
Collaborating with local designer Erin Martin and San Francisco firm BAR Architects, the Trinchero family has created a state-of-the-art winery with an emphasis on design. The property's design blends Italian and California influences and nods to the history of the family and the region, from the cathedral-like winery facility to the historic wine caves beneath the property. Its latest addition is a 5,000-square-foot tasting room boasting custom furnishings, a vintage taxidermy installation, and a speakeasy-style VIP tasting area.
Courtesy of Haldane Martin4/19Kunjani Wines
Stellenbosch, South Africa
kunjaniwines.co.za
A recent addition to South Africa’s Stellenbosch wine region is Kunjani Wines. The winery’s design puts a modern twist on Cape Dutch architecture with its charcoal exterior and red sliding screens, which were inspired by the patterns painted on West African mud huts. The interiors, by Haldane Martin, are equally daring with a laser-cut staircase and wine display, graphic wallpaper, and bright red accents.
Courtesy of Mission Hill Winery5/19Mission Hill Winery
West Kelowna, Canada
missionhillwinery.com
Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig designed Mission Hill Winery’s 120,000-square-foot hilltop complex in West Kelowna, British Columbia. The dramatic buildings are clad in board-formed concrete and surround a central courtyard, which features an 85-foot-tall bell tower with bells by the foundry that cast the bells of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York and the Sacré Coeur in Paris. The Wine Education Centre displays a Marc Chagall tapestry and houses a small theater.
Photo courtesy of Ysios6/19Bodegas Ysios
Spain
domecqbodegas.com
Bodegas Ysios, in Spain’s Rioja region, was designed by Santiago Calatrava and completed in 2001, with an undulating aluminum-and-cedar roof that echoes the mountainous landscape. Its name is a tribute to Isis and Osiris, Egyptian gods closely linked to the world of wine.
Photo: Andrea Rontini7/19Rocca di Frassinello
Maremma, Italy
castellare.it
Designed by Pritzker Prize winner Renzo Piano, Tuscany’s Rocca di Frassinello opened in 2007, the result of a partnership between Paolo Panerai, owner of Castellare di Castellina in Chianti Classico, and Baron Eric de Rothschild of the world-famous Domaines Barons de Rothschild-Lafite. The winery combines traditional forms of Tuscan architecture with an industrial theme. A rectangular tower holds heliostats that reflect light into the building interior.
Photo: Enrico Cano8/19Petra Winery
Suvereto, Italy
petrawine.it
Petra Winery, located near the ancient Tuscan village of Suvereto, was designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta and completed in 2003. The structure has architectural features reminiscent of other Botta designs, including a cylindrical core (as seen at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) and a plant-topped roof (similar to the one crowning the Cathedral of the Resurrection in Évry, France), but the building is firmly grounded in the region, with an exterior clad in rough-hewn pink stone from Verona.
Photo: FG+SG9/19L’And Vineyards
Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal
l-andvineyards.com
L’And Vineyards, in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal, was designed by the Lisbon-based firm Promontorio and completed in 2011. The stark white exterior of this winery and hotel was inspired by the lime-washed buildings common in the Alentejo region. The pièce de résistance? Ten suites feature retractable ceilings, allowing guests to drink in the area’s starry nights.
Photo: Pedro Lobo10/19Niepoort Winery
Douro Valley, Portugal
niepoort-vinhos.com
Niepoort Winery, in Portugal’s Douro Valley, was designed by Austrian architect Andreas Burghardt and completed in 2008. The stepped, curved lines of the stone façade mirror the vineyard’s terraced landscape.
Photo courtesy of Marqués de Riscal11/19Marqués de Riscal
Elciego, Spain
marquesderiscal.com
Marqués de Riscal, a winery in Elciego, Spain, dating from the 1850s, commissioned Pritzker Prize winner Frank Gehry to create a structure that would serve as the center of its new City of Wine. The pink-hued titanium exterior of Gehry’s building, completed in 2006, is evocative of a joyous ribbon wrapped around a present. Along with the winery, the complex is also home to a hotel, restaurant, and a Caudalie spa.
Photo: García & Betancourt12/19O. Fournier Winery
Mendoza, Argentina
ofournier.com
O. Fournier Winery, in Mendoza, Argentina, was designed by Bormida & Yanzon and completed in 2007. The modern concrete, glass, and stainless-steel structure stands in stark relief against a spectacular backdrop of corrugated mountains jutting straight up from the vineyards.
Photo: Grant Mudford/Courtesy of Michael Graves & Associates13/19Clos Pegase Winery
Calistoga, California
clospegase.com
In 1984, an architectural competition overseen by the San Francisco Museum of Art was held for the commission to build Clos Pegase Winery, in Calistoga, California. The winner was Michael Graves, who completed the project in 1987. The structure—meant to be “reminiscent of southern European agrarian buildings, which control and filter sunlight and relate to the landscape through their colors and materials”—also serves to house owner Jan Shrem’s impressive collection of modern art, including works by Jean Dubuffet, Henry Moore, and César Baldaccini.
Photo: Nigel Young14/19Bodegas Portia
Ribera del Duero, Spain
bodegasfaustino.com
Set in Ribera del Duero, one of Spain’s foremost wine-producing regions, Bodegas Portia, part of the Faustino Group, was designed by Foster + Partners and opened in 2010. Along with many modern design elements (Cor-Ten steel exterior walls, rooftop solar panels), the structure also incorporates an old-fashioned gravity-driven winemaking system: During harvest, grapes are dropped on the roof, where they are processed and crushed; the juice then pours down to containers waiting below.
Photo courtesy of Opus One Winery15/19Opus One
Napa Valley, California
opusonewinery.com
An early entry in the statement-winery movement, Napa Valley’s Opus One was designed by Scott Johnson of Johnson, Fain & Pereira and completed in 1991. The structure, which combines traditional European architectural elements and pared-down New World aesthetics, was meant to reflect the unique partnership between the label’s founders, Baron Philippe de Rothschild of France’s venerable Château Mouton Rothschild dynasty and Robert Mondavi, California’s legendary winemaking pioneer.
Photo: Matt Wilson for Lapostolle16/19Lapostolle Clos Apalta
Colchagua Valley, Chile
en.lapostolle.com
In 1994, Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle, scion of the French wine- and spirit-making family that produces Grand Marnier, and her husband, Cyril de Bournet, began growing grapes and making wine in Chile’s fertile Colchagua Valley. Ten years later, they completed a centerpiece winery on a hill overlooking their estate. Lapostolle Clos Apalta, designed by Amercanda Architects, is a six-level structure of wood, glass, and steel that looks a bit like a bird’s nest perched on the side of a mountain. Along with tasting facilities, Lapostolle offers Relais & Châteaux accommodations.
Photo: Roland Halbe17/19R. López de Heredia
Rioja, Spain
lopezdeheredia.com
In celebration of its 125th anniversary, R. López de Heredia, a venerable winery based in Spain’s Rioja region, hired Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid to design a pavilion to house a shop and tasting room. The architect created a dramatic white triangular structure, completed in 2006, at the label’s headquarters in Haro that serves as a “bridge between the past, present, and future evolution of its world-famous bodegas.”
Photo: Cristobal Palma18/19Vik
Millahue Valley, Chile
vik.cl
Hoteliers Alex and Carrie Vik hosted a competition among Chilean architects in 2007 for a commission to design a winery for their new label, Vik. Smiljan Radic took the prize and created a long, low building at the center of the couple’s 11,000-acre estate in the Millahue Valley, south of Santiago. Radic, who designed this year’s Serpentine Pavilion in London, kept the building’s profile unobtrusive by creating underground levels for processing and storing wine. An expansive shallow pool that holds water used to cool the lower levels is crisscrossed with concrete pathways and decorated with boulders.
Photo: Erick Saillet19/19Château Cheval Blanc
Saint-Émilion, France
chateau-cheval-blanc.com
When designing a new facility for Château Cheval Blanc, in Saint-Émilion, France, Pritzker Prize–winning architect Christian de Portzamparc drew inspiration from the concrete fermentation vats used by the winemaker and created a structure topped with a white concrete canopy. From a distance, the wavelike roof appears like a curvilinear sculpture perched atop the surrounding grapevines.
