Lodovico Antinori has just announced that his projected avant-garde wine cellar at the Campo di Sasso estate near Bogheri will be designed by Milanese architect Gae Aulenti.
Aulenti, one of Itay's top architects, has designed and renovated buildings around the world including Paris's Museé d'Orsay and San Francisco's Asian Art Museum as well as Venice's Palazzo Grassi.
She has become one of several architects called to this area of Tuscany to create so-called 'designer' wine cellars for cult winemakers who have invested in the Maremma, the prime area for producing Super Tuscans, known as Italy's 'gold coast'.
Gaja's Ca' Marcanda winery, designed by Giovanni Bo, set the trend in the region. Others quickly followed suit, including the Moretti family of Bellavista fame. Their cyndrical winery, by architect Mario Botta, was completed last year.
Lodovico Antinori - who runs Campo di Sasso with his brother Piero - said, 'I think this cellar will become an important element for the region. It is a beautiful design and relies on two principals: simplicity and refinement. It will have very little impact on the countryside as it will be almost entirely underground'.
The wines from Campo di Sasso, the first joint project for the Antinori brothers after 20 years, are currently vinified in a temporary but well-equipped cellar on the estate, where the estate's base wine, 'Insoglio del Cinghiale' is currently produced as well as 'Pino di Biserno' to be released in 2006.
The estate's top wine, Il Biserno, should be ready in 2008, about the same time as the new cellar is finished.
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