NURTURING NATURE

WINERY DESIGN IS NOW MOVING AWAY FROM INDUSTRIAL MORTAR TO ARCHITECTURAL RESTRUCTURING IN TUNE WITH NATURE, AS IT WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE. DO THESE NATURE-ADJACENT WINERIES CREATE BETTER WINES? INDEED THEY DO!

- GAGAN SHARMA

Undoubtedly, wine is among nature’s choicest gifts; the grape’s leap toward immortality. But the best part about wines is that it’s the oldest natural beverage that solicits practically no human intervention. The grape vine is an ivy plant, much like the omnipresent money plant. Just like growing a money plant needs little more than a leaf left in water, sans soil, nutrients, fertilisers or even sun; grapevines flourish almost as independently.

The fruit brings natural sweetness, the yeast in the air feeds on it, and voila, you have wine. Since wines weren’t an invention as much as a discovery, it’s only fitting that we, as consumers, would attempt to create better wines. Ironically, winemakers are now designing wineries, equipment, and processes in tune with natural elements to advance nature’s largesse.

LET GRAVITY BE 

Wineries, much like other buildings have long been constructed over the ground. However, an increasing number of winemakers today are aligning with the principles of gravity to create underground wineries for a plethora of reasons. This stems from the simple idea that winemaking is mostly a vertical process. So while the land you deploy to create a winery might be limited, there is no end to how deep one can go.