The stone wines

The winery is part of a site of ??25 hectares of vineyard located in the countryside of northern Bari, in a diverse agricultural environment marked by vineyards and olive groves. The sound of the wine production blends into the countryside one, where the building is immersed.

The winery is organized onto two levels. The first one is buried to one meter and it is a free space which has the intention to make the guests feel surrounded by vineyards. Once the grapes arrive into the reception room, they drop for gravity in the underground floor to start the first fermentation in aluminium tanks. The tanks are inspectable thanks to an operable grid system flooring above them. After all the fermentations, the white wine is directly bottled and then stored. The red wine process is a bit longer: it requires the aging. The aging rooms are located underground to take advantage of constant humidity, temperature and low light condition, relevant requirements for the perfect conservation of the barrels wood. The physical properties of “Mazzaro” stone guarantee high thermal inertia to keep these environment conditions.\nThe “route” goes head emerging from the underground to the restaurant and the accomodation area. The aim was to create a restaurant pavilion were the limits of outside and inside melted away. It tooks inspiration from a landmark of this site: the “menhir”. The structure became an expressive tool taking advantage of the huge meaningful power of the stone monoliths.\nAnd lastly, we have the “masseria” which is organized in three linked buildings, two of these are bedrooms and the third one is intended for dining room, kitchen and chill area. Adjustment of sunlight and ventilation were conceived. Long eaves had been designed in order to shield vertical solar radiations in summer and to let get in more horizontal radiations during the winter. The “mazzaro” limestone has low thermal conductivity and strong thermal inertia. This means there is a big mass that retains heat during the day and that scatters the stored heat in the night hours. Moreover the massive stone wall expresses “structural honesty”. The wall thickness is a “container” not a solid block.