Tenuta di Castellaro is a monument dedicated to landscape, art, architecture and technology, in full respect of the territory that welcomed us.
From the space in which an old ruin stood, the largest Aeolian bio-energy winery was born on the Piana di Castellaro.
The project of the winery was based on three main principles: integration with the territory, exploitation of natural resources and respect for the construction tradition and natural history of the Island of Lipari.
Lipari is sun and wind: we have used these natural resources with solar chimneys and the wind tower, built with futuristic technologies. Through a thermal labyrinth and a chimney, a natural air-conditioning system is created that allows to maintain a constant temperature and humidity level in the barrel room, ideal for ageing our wines.
The geological history of Lipari is told through columns and vaults of the barrel room, completely underground, which was built in vernacular architecture, inspired by the Chiostro Normanno, historical symbol of Lipari.
The elegance of the head-trained system, the plantations of capers and a landscape project in "wild" style, which aims to enhance the island's native flora, enrich the natural scenery with rare aesthetic beauty.
Michele Giannetti (from Tuscany) and Alessandro Dal Piaz (from Trento), of the Dal Piaz + Giannetti Architekten studio in Hamburg, they have shared with the ownership the ambitious project of Tenuta di Castellaro since the beginning.
The zero-impact winery was built with a particular construction technique which makes it unique in its kind: a place worth visiting for the strong architectural, visual and emotional connotation. The most delicate and particular moments of the realization of the project were undoubtedly the construction phases of the barrel room.
During the first phase of construction the land was modelled with the shape of the pillars and the vaults and then, after the installation of the reinforcing bar, the concrete casting was carried out.
After 28 days, the land was dug around the pillars and from that moment the history has become surprisingly protagonist: a geological period of more than 20,000 years told through the texture and colours of the columns, which represent the different volcanic phenomena that has happened on the Island of Lipari.
Lipari is sun and wind and Tenuta di Castellaro, based on the principle of respect for nature, uses these natural resources inside the winery, through the solar chimneys and the wind tower.
The solar chimneys, invented by the ancient Persians and also used by the ancient Romans who optimized their potential, were designed to naturally capture the light of the sun and spread it throughout the environment, to almost completely eliminate the use of energy lighting electricity.
The wind tower (badghir in Persian) was used in the Middle East by the ancient populations since the 10th century BC to take advantage of wind energy; it consists of a fireplace and a thermal labyrinth, which create a natural air conditioning system, maintaining the ideal temperature and humidity to allow the perfect ageing of our wines.
Even now, it is the most sophisticated passive cooling system in the world.