Recent incursions into the world of Italian wineries by famous architects have added daring design to some of the world’s most tantalizing landscapes. The intoxicating result? Italy’s new “archi-wineries” – and thanks to a series of exclusive new day trips, no one is better prepared to show them to savvy travelers in style than Select Italy. The tours, collectively the ‘Archi-Wine’ Tour: When Architects Meet Winemakers, are three tours (with new tours already in development), and focus on the hottest wineries in Tuscany and the Piedmont.
Departing from medieval Alba, Select Italy’s 9 1/2 hour Piedmont day trip introduces travelers to various aspects of the Ceretto brand. First stop is the colorful, little Cappella delle Brunate outside La Morra. Built in 1914 for those who worked in the surrounding vineyards, this deconsecrated chapel gradually fell into a state of disrepair. The owner of the Ceretto engaged two well-known artists, Sol LeWitt and David Tremlett, to transform it into a work of contemporary art. (The artists’ fee? Bottles of Barolo wine from the Ceretto family cellars, certamente!)
This fabulous tour continues with a visit to “The Cube” at Ceretto’s Bricco Rocche Winery in Castiglione Falletto, where only Barolo wine is produced. “The Cube” is a modern, high-tech work of art in a stunning setting. Were a wine theme to work its way into her next video, Lady Gaga would need look no further than this. Designed by the Turin architectural firm, Deabate, it is totally transparent landscape architecture presented as sculpture and blends seamlessly into the surrounding countryside.
Next stop is Ceretto’s headquarters at the Monsordo Bernardina Winery, just outside Alba. Housed in an 18th-century farmstead, this project is a magnificent combination of tradition and innovation. Lunch is enjoyed at the Ristorante La Piola in Alba’s beautiful Piazza Duomo. The tour continues at one of the region’s most noted truffle sellers, where a culinary workshop reveals the various processes involved in the preparation of white and black truffles. This luxury tour is value-priced at $749 per person for two, $496 per person for four.
Everyone’s heard the rumors about that irrepressible Tuscan sun, but how many know about the cutting edge wineries that have turned secret pockets of Tuscany into spectacular settings for wine and design lovers alike? Renzo Piano’s stellar cellar for the Rocca di Frassinello winery in the sweet land of Maremma, south of Siena, features a spire above a glass pavilion studded with three round mirrors that catapult the sun’s Tuscan rays down to a realm of 2,500 barrels below. In Suvereto, also in Maremma, Vittorio Moretti enlisted architect Mario Botta (of San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art) to give the high-tech cellars of his Petra Wineries an extra jolt of visual splendor with an outsized cylindrical stone structure, with arcades on either side set into the green landscape. And there’s the resolutely modern oeuvre that Gae Aulenti, who famously reworked the Musée d’Orsay, has made for Antinori Vineyards, in Campo di Sasso near Bibbona. The state-of-the-art cellars of the Ca’ Marcanda Winery are camouflaged, with interlocking pavilions built from natural materials into slopes covered with transplanted 60-year-old olive trees.
Not all the archi-wineries are open to the public. Select Italy’s day trips (of about 11 hours’ duration) from Florence to the latter two include lunch at the seaside restaurant La Pineta di Marina di Bibbona and guided tastings at the wineries (at Ca’ Marcanda, that includes DOC of Bolgheri, Barbaresco and Montalcino). Separately, and also departing from Florence, new tours highlight the Rocca di Frassinello and Petra wineries. In addition to wine tastings, a gourmet lunch is included at the Enoteca la Cinquantina, located in an 18th-century farmhouse near the beach in Cecina. These value-priced luxury excursions ($725 per person for two people, $564 per person for three) include transportation in an air-conditioned luxury vehicle with an English-speaking guide and driver in addition to the lunch and wine tastings.
For more information on either Select Italy’s exclusive Tuscany or Piedmont winery tours, or to make bookings, call (800) 877-1755 or visit SelectItaly.com.
About Select Italy
Select Italy is the ultimate source for travel in Italy and offers a wide array of superior Italian products and services, including customized itineraries, state-of-the-art tours and packages, wedding/honeymoon trips, unique culinary classes, a complete pre-departure ticketing service for museums and musical events, private guided services, yacht charters, transportation, hotel reservations, villa bookings and more. For more information call (800) 877-1755 or visit www.selectitaly.com.
Editors, Oenologist.com
