Adega Casa da Torre / Carlos Castanheira
Textual content description supplied by the architects. A vineyard is now not what it was once.
I as soon as knew wineries the place cobwebs and dirt, had been the signal of time passing and of the instances.
Time was additionally, nearly at all times, the signal of high quality, because the wine that acquired preserved over time, on the time, was good wine, which acquired even higher after being left there for a number of years.
Wineries are altering and so they now not have room for mud, nor for cobwebs.
Now they’re true laboratories, dominated by strict legal guidelines of employment and hygiene. They obey a finely tuned science of dosage, temperature management, accelerated or slowed down, with roughly chemistry. In some instances, a vineyard is a spot of actual alchemy.
The Vineyard of Casa da Torre already existed, nearly as good wine was already being produced on the property. The need to provide extra wine, higher and in accordance with the brand new guidelines led to having to rethink the vineyard and inevitably to enlarge it.
The siting and orientation are wonderful. Half buried into the location, its southern facet is sheltered from direct sunshine and the ensuing excessive temperatures. The western facet is also sheltered. To the north, is a excessive and thick granite wall. To the east, are the entry and entrance areas.
The extension added solely what was crucial, making an attempt to respect what was already there.
The transformation began at roof stage: from a fancy number of totally different buildings and planes a two manner pitched roof was created.
A cross span of 18 meters compelled the introduction of a row of central pillars, which had been undesired and undesirable and which had been subsequently diminished to a minimal.
The roof construction in laminated timber is a straightforward one, regardless of the 4 stanchions that emerge from every pillar, to help the roof trusses.
Metal cables are used to restrain the nice horizontal thrust generated by the load of the construction and roof finishes.
Inside, the selection of supplies was guided by the parameters of hygiene, sturdiness and upkeep.
The timber vats and tubs had been changed by chrome steel tanks rigorously lined up, with their beneficiant bellies, some full, others ready to obtain the dear nectar.
Over the granite out of doors tank, sits the quantity of the small workplace, each inside and outside, making an attempt to attach the 2 areas.
Entry is from a stairs, additionally in timber. An elevated gantry permits for circulation and connects the upper ranges of the location to the west with that of the workplace ground.
The roof overhangs the stone paved entrance, in so doing it covers the arrival house, the bogs and a “vat” which is the laboratory.
Gentle, solely as a lot as is required, is filtered via a timber display screen.
Inside, the wine is saved, maturing, after the enterprise of the harvest, the crushing, the fermentation and all of the information inherent to this course of.
The works on the vineyard led to the re-thinking of the exterior house. Some bushes had been transplanted, some stones moved, some new tanks had been constructed, as within the outdated instances, with flooring of nice stone slabs.
Some water sources that had been forgotten had been once more tapped into and used.
The vineyard is now not what it was once. It’s now higher, as is the wine.
It’s recent, as is the wine. The inexperienced wine.
