The new winery. Seven years have passed since the first bottles of La Casa di Sophia 2011 were made. In August 2017, La Casa di Sophia, with its new wine cellar, qualified as an organic winery. The old barn, previously restored, is now the storage area where the wines are bottle and mature.
Let’s take a few steps back: in 2012, I planned the construction of an Eco-friendly cellar where the must (pressed grapes) could ferment in the vats away from the sun and wind. From my basic sketch Peter Moll designed the first drawing of the wooden structure.
The project was planned in detail along with agronomist Dr. Magda Fava. After approval by seven public authorities, work began in the summer of 2015. Multiple firms were involved and all was finalized in July 2017.
The architectural structure of the cellar, built within the front garden of the house, resembles the parallelepiped shape of the old farm houses found on the isle of Sant’Antioco. The inclined roof is made of wood panelling covered by a cork sheathing. The rounded roof tiles are set on a “strips frame” to ensure ventilation. The building materials. such as the wood (used for the structure skeleton, roof and frame), the cork sheathing (a natural insulator), the tiles, and canes, are natural and Eco-friendly. The canes are mounted within the roof frame to enable ventilation and protect the must and grapes from the sun and heat. Each cane was measured and hand cut to fit. A water recycling system has also been installed which allows the waste water to be used for watering the olive trees.
The construction for this project took two and a half years. The close collaboration of Magda and her assistants helped overcome a number of obstacles encountered along the way. I coordinated and followed the project in all its phases.
This project is dedicated to Magda Fava whom passed away on 31th of January 2017.
