Freixo do Meio Winery, Alentejo - Portugal

The Freixo do Meio Winery , designed by the architect Frederico Valsassina, is an estate located in the Alentejo region of southern Portugal. It is a beautiful region, steeped in history and tradition, inhabited for thousands of years, and the winery's architecture reflects this rich and complex history in very interesting ways.

We will start with the prehistoric era and how this heritage has helped shape the project; indeed, one of the many signs of human presence in the Alentejo is the widespread prehistoric dolmens, which is also the starting point of this project. Close to the site is the São Geraldo dolmen - a quick comparison between the photograph and the original concept sketch makes it clear that this was the inspiration for the project.

In fact, the buried winery concept is a good idea for a number of reasons as it lessens the impact of the building on the landscape and reduces energy consumption as the grapes are gravity fed into the winemak