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MetopoArchitects, Chania

MT 18.05

Winery at Voukolies

A press hall set into a hillside, a barrel cellar dug into it, and a tasting room under a pergola facing the vines.

Place
Voukolies, Kissamos, Chania
Status
Built
Design and build
2018 to 2022
Kind
Place of work
Floor area
1,100 m²
Site
14,000 m²
Client
A family of growers with fourteen hectares of Romeiko and Vidiano vines
The tasting room and the press hall in the September evening, from the vines.
Fig. 1The tasting room and the press hall in the September evening, from the vines.

The site

A south-facing slope below the village, terraced in the nineteenth century and planted with vines since. The ground rises six metres across the site. Below four metres of red earth there is soft limestone, easy to dig and dry.

The brief

A winery that works by gravity and keeps the wine cool without machines.

Drawings

Every drawing is at the scale on its bar. The numbers on the plan match the list beside it.

Ground floor plan of Winery at Voukolies, with numbered rooms and the line of section A

Slide the drawing sideways to see all of it.

1Ground floor planDrawing A-101, scale bar in metres

Rooms

  1. Grape reception and press hall
  2. Tank hall
  3. Tasting room
  4. Pergola terrace
  5. The barrel cellar, below the upper terrace
South elevation of Winery at Voukolies, drawn in line

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2South elevationDrawing A-301, scale bar in metres
Painted axonometric of Winery at Voukolies, lit for a summer afternoon, with its shadows

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3AxonometricDrawing A-001
Site plan of Winery at Voukolies: roofs, shadows, contours and the boundary

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4Site planDrawing A-000, scale bar in metres

The project

The family had been making wine in a shed with a borrowed press. They wanted a real winery, but not one that would need a cooling plant bigger than the building.

The answer was already in the slope. Grapes arrive by the upper road and are sorted on the terrace; they go down into the press hall, then to the tanks, and then down again into the cellar. Nothing is pumped uphill.

The cellar is a barrel vault dug five metres into the hill. The earth above it is the insulation: the temperature in it has stayed between 15 and 17 degrees since the first harvest, with the doors shut and no machines at all.

The press hall is a long stone building with a ventilated tile roof. The air gap under the tiles is open at the eaves and at the ridge, so in September, when the grapes arrive, the roof takes the sun and the hall stays cool.

The tasting room at the end looks south over the vines, under a pergola of chestnut. It is the only part of the building that has glass.

The slope model: every contour is a layer of grey card, cut by hand.
Fig. 2The slope model: every contour is a layer of grey card, cut by hand.
The tasting room at half past five, with the pergola and the vines beyond.
Fig. 3The tasting room at half past five, with the pergola and the vines beyond.

Sun, shade and air

Section A, drawing A-201. The sun is shown at noon on the longest and the shortest day, 78 and 31 degrees above the horizon in Chania; the blue dashes are the way the air moves.

Section through Winery at Voukolies, with the sun at noon in June and December and the paths of the air

Slide the drawing sideways to see all of it.

  1. The barrel cellar is dug five metres into the hill: 15 to 17 degrees all year, with no machines.

  2. A ventilated tile roof over the press hall: the air gap is open at the eaves and at the ridge.

  3. Grapes go down by gravity, from the sorting table to the press, to the tanks, to the barrels.

  4. The earth of the upper terrace is the insulation of the cellar.

Materials

Samples from the long table in the office. Each one comes from the site or from within a day's drive of it.

  • Limestone

    Dug out of the cellar and laid back up as the walls of the hall

  • Terracotta

    Roof tiles, over a ventilated timber deck

  • Chestnut

    Pergola and the tasting room ceiling

  • Rubble stone

    Terrace walls, dry-laid

Credits

Metopo

  • Andreas Manousakis, partner in charge
  • Yiorgos Fragiadakis, site
  • Katerina Lionaki
  • Stelios Karatzis, models

With

  • Structure: Petros Zervoudakis, civil engineer
  • Wine equipment: the family, who knew exactly what they wanted
  • Builder: Stavrakakis Construction, Kissamos

Facts

  • Project MT 18.05, 2018 to 2022
  • Construction cost €1,350 per m², 2021 prices
  • Drawings, models and pictures by Metopo

Awards and press

  • Award, 2023. Cretan Building Awards, places of work, Cretan Building Awards
  • Lecture, 2023. The cellar in the hill, Thessaloniki Architecture Week