“Cantina Bolzano” Winery

By Francesco Pagliari - 4 May 2021

Built just outside the San Maurizio neighborhood of Bolzano, this winery aptly sums up two of South Tyrol’s cardinal features: vineyards and quality winemaking. Settled into the foothills of the nearby Dolomites, this production plant can be seen as the culmination of a business started in the early 20th century - in 1908 and 1930 - with the creation of two cooperative wineries, their subsequent merger in 2001, and more recently, the launch of an international call for tenders to design and build a headquarters that would embrace the company’s craft origins but also carry it forward with new drive.
The project by the competition winner, dell’agnolo kelderer architekturbüro, captures the essence of a modern winery as a place of both traditional craft values and wide-ranging
state-of-the-art winemaking technology. Indeed, as a place where wine is made, sold and tasted, Cantina Bolzano was recognized as meeting CasaClima Wine standards. Constructed with sustainability criteria in mind, the winery ensures excellent thermal insulation and constant temperatures in the production sections thanks to solar protection, vent stacks, and the use of a vertical - in part “free-fall” -
production cycle that does not require the use of pumps.
The winery comprises separate but related parts. The multi-level production plant building is largely underground, sunk into the mountainside. Although this required considerable earth moving, the result is a building the slips effortlessly into its setting - all the more so as its sloping roof is planted with vineyards, creating a continuum with its surroundings.
The offices and sales areas are housed in a landmark central volume, the core of the complex: a five-story “cube” standing in the oval central forecourt. Its inner glazed façade shielded by a perforated aluminum skin patterned with stylized vine leaves is the focal point and...