Architecture and Wine: Cantina in Umbria

When a client asked me to transform his tiny, dark basement into a wine cellar where he could store and taste hiw wine collection, I thought I was in heaven! A new job and the possibility of creating a ‘home’ for one of my greatest passions: wine! My passion for wine started about 15 years ago and ever since I often travel to discover new wineries and buy bottles from all over Italy that I can then taste with friends when we have dinner together. This basement was a rough, unfinished space built with tufo blocks by the foundation of a residential villa near Lake Trasimeno in Umbria. With a minor restoration work, I have paved the floor with silver stone slabs, cladded the walls with black slate and with soft led lighting I created a dark but ‘fun’ space where wine could be kept and tasted, using an old barrique as a little tasting table. Bottled are stored (still empty in the pictures) in a diamond shape wine rack (in natural oak) and glasses are rinsed in an old reclaimed marble sink, the only ‘white’ element in this dark cavern. Architecture and Wine, two of my passions together in a secret grotto in Umbria.