O’Brien Van der Steen Workshops were appointed by Ethno Wines to design and build a new Qvevri House (traditional Georgian wine making) and Winery that reflected their ethos of using traditional and contemporary wine production techniques to make high quality, artesian bio-wine and in a building that draws upon the place, culture and history of Georgian wine production.
The building sits at the top of the site in a commanding position, overlooking the valley and extensive vineyards below, and gradually steps down the landscape as the production processes unfold.
A guest area for wine tasting and a restaurant sit on a flat plateau that is set down into the slope. with vines planted up close to the edge of the building, bringing building, landscape and the particularities of Georgian wine production into close harmony.
Rammed earth makes use of the excavated material available on site, and aligns closely with the traditional earth born wine making processes inherent to Georgian wine. The careful use this earth provides a natural mass allowing the building to meet the controlled ambient temperatures and environments required for wine making in a passive manner reducing the reliance on energy intensive technologies.
These principles and ideas are intended to make a building that is both a part of and unique within its landscape, Georgian wine making and Manavi itself; a building that is both timeless and contemporary.
