Cantina Petra has been voted the best in Italy by enthusiasts and experts. In Suvereto stands an architectural gem by Mario Botta, remarkable for its beauty and functionality. And it is also self-sustaining.
True wine lovers don't just enjoy drinking good wine — they often plan dedicated tours to visit the most famous wineries. Wine and food tourism in Italy is increasingly widespread, and it is a sector that entrepreneurs and producers are tending to with ever-greater care. As a result, for some years now there has been a trend towards commissioning major architects to design or renovate wineries across Italy's vineyards.
Following this trend, Winenews, one of the most visited websites among fine-wine enthusiasts, and Vinitaly, an internationally renowned wine event, ran a survey that awarded the top spot to the Tuscan winery Petra, belonging to the Gruppo Terra Moretti.
It is located near the ancient village of Suvereto, on the iron-rich hills of the Val di Cornia that slope down towards the Tyrrhenian Sea, and it is the work of Swiss architect Mario Botta, who embarked on the project in 2001 taking as his starting point the geometric pattern of the vineyard, which contrasts with the undulating orographic profile of the terrain.
The winery covers an area of approximately 7,200 square metres and sits at the centre of a vast expanse of vineyards. It presents itself as a futuristic structure, characterised by an articulated floor plan that, in elevation, takes the form of a cylinder cut by an inclined plane, flanked on its outer edges by two lateral wings screened by long porticoes.
Then in 2010 came a further step forward: in order to power the winery and make it self-sustaining from an energy standpoint, it was decided to install a floating photovoltaic system unique in the world for its size and characteristics.
A place well worth visiting if you love good wine, the Tuscan hills, and architecture that respects the landscape in which it sits.