This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Castelbuono Estate has belonged to the Lunelli family since 2001; it’s a 74-acre hilly expanse between Bevagna and Montefalco, in the province of Perugia – the very area of production of Sagrantino wine. The family has recently built a modern and functional wine cellar, which is also quite stylish and perfectly suited to house the highly-prized Montefalco Sagrantin wine – the architect sculptor Arnoldo Pomodoro designed the whole structure himself.

In 2012, the new wine cellar was thus opened: the so-called “Carapace”: a highly functional structure that challenges the boundaries between sculpture and architecture – it can actually be regarded as the first-ever sculpture in the world where people live and work, blending art, history, tradition, nature and wine. The shape of the cellar was inspired by the very “roundness” of the surrounding landscape, perfectly integrated with the latter but at the same time looking like a spaceship made of copper or even a turtle, poised among the rows of grapes: a symbol of stability and longevity which represents the union between earth and sky with its very carapace.
Next to it, there’s a red dart-shaped sculpture stuck into the ground and emphasizing the presence of man activities in this territory.

The whole structure looks like an elliptical dome, whose copper roof, deep incisions and cracks typical of Pomodoro’s style, recall the earth and its furrows; at the base of the wine cellar, large windows open onto the landscape.

Entering the “Carapace” feels like accessing the very work of Arnaldo Pomodoro: it’s undoubtedly an evocative and quite stirring wine cellar.
The dome is actually divided in half by a rib and is supported by twelve large pillars; light filters through them thanks to curved windows and door frames made and designed with that very purpose in mind. The cellar is also fitted with concentric curved counters in red laminate, with shelves, drawers and spaces for storing bottles, plus a small kitchen for food tasting and a reception counter.

Visitors can then reach the basement, through the suggestive spiral staircase in reinforced concrete.
The elliptical underground room houses the barrels, and the atmosphere is cold but seraphic.

The lighting system, conceived by Barbara Balestreri’s lighting design studio and created by Osram, is of great value as well: on the ground floor, open to the visitors, the atmosphere is warm, soft and welcoming; all the way down to the barrel cellar the walls turn blue and quite aseptic, thanks to LED lighting that create a sky effect highlighting the barrels. Such illumination choice was made in order not to affect the air conditioning and the production of wine.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)