Underground architecture, designer interiors, lava stone and walk-in sculptures: 15 Italian wineries to discover in autumn 2026 through a design lens.
Some wineries are recognisable before you even read the name on the label: a façade that looks like a wine crate, a dome incised like a sculpture, an opening in the hillside. The project begins there, in the way a building takes its place among the vines and prepares the eye for what happens inside.
For autumn 2026 our editors have chosen 15 Italian wineries to discover through design. Some entrust their identity to contemporary architecture, others to the recovery of rural buildings, the strength of a material or the design of the agricultural landscape. Alongside each one we have placed a post from its official Instagram profile, to see how the winery presents itself today, between harvest and autumn light.
The season offers a lower light, able to lengthen shadows and bring out the texture of surfaces. The journey continues our look at wine resorts in Italy where design meets wine, shifting the focus to forms, interiors and relationships with the land.
15 Italian wineries, 15 ways of interpreting design
From the Langhe to Etna, from South Tyrol to Sardinia, each stop offers a different way of giving form to wine culture. The order follows the story of the projects and their atmospheres.
1. L’Astemia Pentita, Barolo (Piedmont)
Two wine crates become architecture
In the heart of Cannubi, in Barolo, L’Astemia Pentita (now simply L’Astemia) takes an everyday object and changes its scale. Gianni Arnaudo’s design turns wine crates into large stacked volumes, legible even from afar: a pop, ironic piece of architecture that is not afraid of being looked at.
The form of the building and the imagery of the product belong to the same idea, which makes it a case worth studying when we talk about architecture as storytelling. Part of the production unfolds underground, while on the surface the presence remains deliberately unexpected among the autumn vineyards.
From the official Instagram profile of L’Astemia
2. Fabbrica Pienza, Pienza (Tuscany)
Contemporary rigour in the Val d’Orcia
Fabbrica Pienza gives architecture a precise task: to make room for production without losing the relationship with the vineyards. The working areas and an underground barrel cellar are gathered in a building designed to blend into the estate, in an amphitheatre of vines facing Pienza and Monte Amiata.
Clean lines and a minimalist design make the winery very different from the usual image of a Tuscan farmhouse. What matters is the measure of the intervention, the relationship between building, land and horizon, which is best understood by widening the frame and letting the landscape explain the proportions.
From the official Instagram profile of Fabbrica Pienza
3. Le Mortelle, Castiglione della Pescaia (Tuscany)
A winery that follows the section of the land
At Le Mortelle, in the Maremma, Hydea’s design places most of the production areas underground. The cylindrical structure, built with natural materials, rises over three levels around a large steel staircase and links the journey of the grapes and the wine to the depth of the building.
The beauty of the project is read in its section, in the continuity of its routes and in the balance between built parts and vegetation. The barrel cellar shows how much the character of a winery can depend on what the landscape conceals.
From the official Instagram profile of Le Mortelle
4. Podernuovo a Palazzone, San Casciano dei Bagni (Tuscany)
The landscape runs through the building
The winery designed by Alvisi Kirimoto for Podernuovo a Palazzone grows out of an observation of the hills, the crops and the lines of the territory. Walls, routes and openings organise the production needs while letting the landscape into the perception of the spaces.
What stands out is the depth of the perspectives: the eye passes through the architecture and finds its point of reference outside again. Transparency becomes a compositional choice, able to hold work and contemplation together.
From the official Instagram profile of Podernuovo a Palazzone
5. Salcheto, Montepulciano (Tuscany)
Sustainability takes shape in space
Salcheto connects production, energy and landscape integration. The winery, designed by architect Michele Manelli and inaugurated in 2011, uses a gravity-fed process for winemaking and folds hospitality into the estate, among the hills of Montepulciano.
The detail to look at is the match between technical choices and the organisation of space: here sustainability is not a label but a building principle, so much so that the winery is cited as a reference model for winery construction.
From the official Instagram profile of Salcheto
6. Nals Margreid, Nalles (South Tyrol)
Porphyry-coloured concrete and a great oak crate
Markus Scherer gave Nals Margreid an architecture built on measured contrasts. The red-brown concrete walls echo the porphyry of the landscape, while the oak-clad barrel cellar recalls a very large wine crate.
The asymmetrical roof and the dialogue with the restored historic estate add complexity to the project. Every part of the building is recognisable through its material: wood warms, concrete defines the mass, the landscape suggests the palette.
From the official Instagram profile of Nals Margreid
7. Cantina Merano, Marlengo (South Tyrol)
The wine bar as an observatory over the land
At the Marlengo headquarters, which celebrates the winery’s 125th anniversary in 2026, Werner Tscholl’s intervention sets the solidity of the production areas against the lightness of the panoramic wine bar. The glass keeps a wide relationship with the Merano basin and the valley.
The eye lingers on the boundary between inside and outside: transparency, reflections and light turn tasting into an experience of space. The landscape enters the building without having to become decoration.
From the official Instagram profile of Kellerei Cantina Merano
8. Zýmē, San Pietro in Cariano (Veneto)
An old quarry becomes the heart of the winery
Zýmē is set in a sandstone quarry in the Valpolicella. The barrel cellar carved out of the old excavation keeps a direct relationship with the stone, while the pentagonal reception building translates into architecture the symbol of the five elements essential to wine: man, vine, earth, water and sun.
The project sets natural matter in dialogue with geometry. In images of the underground space it is the rock that builds the atmosphere and gives the barrels a scale unlike that of ordinary ageing rooms.
From the official Instagram profile of Zýmē Winery
9. Pieropan, Soave (Veneto)
A curved line that belongs to the hill
The new Leonildo Pieropan winery, designed by Moreno Zurlo of A.c.M.e. studio, opts for underground construction to settle into the Soave landscape. Its forms follow the course of the hills and terraces, making the landscape a concrete point of reference.
The curved façade is the sign by which the project is recognised. Seen together with the slope, it helps us understand how a production building can have a precise presence and still leave room for the continuity of the land.
From the official Instagram profile of Pieropan
10. Feudi di San Gregorio, Sorbo Serpico (Campania)
Architecture, interiors and graphics speak the same language
At Feudi di San Gregorio, Hikaru Mori and Maurizio Zito worked on the architecture, while Massimo and Lella Vignelli contributed to the interiors and the company’s visual culture, down to the mosaic labels. The project links production spaces, hospitality, design and contemporary art.
Its strength is continuity across different scales, from the building to the furnishings to the graphic mark on a bottle. The winery shows how an identity can be built through coherent choices, recognisable in a hall as much as in a small object.
From the official Instagram profile of Feudi di San Gregorio
11. Carapace, Bevagna (Umbria)
Stepping inside an Arnaldo Pomodoro sculpture
Tenute Lunelli’s Carapace brings Arnaldo Pomodoro’s research to the scale of a habitable space. The great copper-clad dome, marked by incisions and fractures, rises among the vineyards as a sculptural presence.
The relationship between the outer surface and the inner space is the heart of the work. The project invites us to see a winery as a place where production and art can share the same form without losing their link to the surrounding land.
From the official Instagram profile of Tenute Lunelli
12. Palmento Costanzo, Castiglione di Sicilia (Sicily)
Lava stone keeps the memory of the work
At Palmento Costanzo, the restoration of the old palmento gives back centrality to a rural architecture built for winemaking. Channels, levels and rooms tell of a building knowledge that used gravity to carry the must through its different stages.
The conservative restoration and the adjoining modern winery connect memory with new production needs. Lava stone is the material thread of the story: in the surfaces and details one recognises a way of building tied to Etna.
From the official Instagram profile of Palmento Costanzo Etna Wine
13. Barone di Villagrande, Milo (Sicily)
Agricultural design on Etna’s eastern slope
In Milo, on Etna’s eastern slope, Barone di Villagrande preserves an agricultural history that the estate traces back to 1727. In this selection what matters most is the landscape the estate makes legible: the relationship between vineyards, altitude and the view of the coast.
Here the project is not a single architectural gesture and must be read as a whole, in the weave of the rows, the volcanic soil and the spaces of the estate. It is the stop that reminds us that the design of a winery can be, first of all, the design of a landscape.
From the official Instagram profile of Villagrande
14. Cottanera, Castiglione di Sicilia (Sicily)
The stone pyramids in the wine landscape
In Cottanera’s vineyards you find the so-called Etna pyramids, pointed heaps of lava stone that mark the agricultural landscape. The winery includes them in the story of the territory, making them a recognisable part of the experience of the place.
It is a presence that widens the theme of design to material culture and the form of the landscape. The piled stone, the geometry of the rows and the profile of the volcano make up an image unlike that of a signature winery, yet just as much designed, by time.
From the official Instagram profile of Cottanera
15. Su’entu, Sanluri (Sardinia)
Local material defines the volume
Su’entu, designed in 2015 by Mario Casciu and Francesca Rango, follows the line of the ridge around a central courtyard. Local stone walls, whitewashed surfaces, glulam beams and steel dialogue with the production volumes, while a cantilevered roof shades the courtyard from the sun.
Its visual strength lies in the relationship between mass and void: dense walls, deep shadows, large glazed sections of the tasting room opening onto the landscape. Here the identity of the territory comes through construction and through surfaces able to give the building character.
From the official Instagram profile of Cantina Su’entu
What makes winery architecture interesting?
Its quality is measured in the relationship between production needs and space. Gravity can suggest a succession of levels, the need to control temperature and humidity can lead to building underground, a local material can become the character of the building. When these choices find a convincing form, even a workplace becomes somewhere to remember.
Very different projects coexist in this selection. L’Astemia Pentita’s pop gesture, the curved line of Pieropan and the sculptural presence of Carapace show that there is no single aesthetic of wine. There is, rather, a relationship to build between what is produced, the place where it is made and the people who pass through it.
Discovering them in autumn: images, places and visits
Autumn is the right moment to observe these buildings in relation to a changing landscape. The colours and timing of the season vary between regions and altitudes: the vineyards of South Tyrol, the Tuscan hills and the slopes of Etna offer very different visual experiences.
Anyone planning a visit should check availability, accessibility and booking arrangements directly with each winery.
It is worth lingering on what often stays at the edge of a tasting: a threshold, a stone wall, the light in the barrel cellar, the way a window frames the vineyard. These details show how much wine can also be a matter of design.
Frequently asked questions about Italian design wineries
Which wineries in this selection can be visited?
The wineries featured generally offer visits and tastings, often by appointment. Before setting out, always check dates, opening hours and accessibility directly with the winery.
Which wineries are built underground?
Le Mortelle and Pieropan chose to hide most of their volumes underground, while Fabbrica Pienza and L’Astemia Pentita develop part of their production below ground. Zýmē, by contrast, makes use of a sandstone quarry in the Valpolicella.
Which Italian regions are represented?
The selection spans eight regions: Piedmont, Tuscany, South Tyrol, Veneto, Campania, Umbria, Sicily and Sardinia, with Tuscany leading in number of projects.
Why visit a winery in autumn?
Because the season coincides with the harvest and the days after it, when lower light brings out materials and surfaces and the vineyards change colour. It is also when wineries show the most of their work, as the posts accompanying each stop demonstrate.
What is a design winery?
A winery in which architecture, interiors and visual identity grow from a single project: from the relationship with the landscape to the choice of materials, through to furnishings, labels and visitor routes.
