The Quinta de Adorigo Winery, designed by Atelier Sérgio Rebelo, comprises a series of interconnected buildings that follow the existing topographical slopes while offering contemporary operational capabilities. Its most striking feature is the sculptural and organic gabled roof. The main entrance to the winery houses a visitor center with a reception area and a wine shop, leading to a meeting room and a wine tasting area. A spacious gallery with balconies provides access to the vineyard and a small, historic stone chapel.
In its construction, the roof structure is made of wood. Locally sourced materials such as schist and granite are used, along with colors like grays, greens, and pinkish browns, subtly adapting the intervention to the terrain.
Wine Cellar of the Quinta de Adorigo by Atelier Sérgio Rebelo. Photograph by Fernando Guerra.
Project description by Atelier Sérgio Rebelo
Winery project at Quinta de Adorigo
The winery at Quinta de Adorigo, completed in 2024, is part of a family-run wine tourism development in Portugal's Alto Douro Wine Region, a UNESCO World Natural and Cultural Heritage Site. Together with a hotel still under construction, the winery subtly blends into the landscape, combining tradition with innovation and sustainability.
Designed to minimize environmental impact, the project utilizes existing infrastructure while anticipating future adaptations. Its curvilinear architecture echoes the zigzag vineyards without compromising functionality.
Locally sourced materials such as schist and granite reduce transport emissions, while wooden structures replace concrete where possible, limiting CO2 release. Over time, the pinkish greys, greens and browns take on new hues and textures, potentiating the building's integration into the environment.
The configuration of the building is a set of interlocking naves that follow the existing topographic slopes, replicated on its internal mechanics, where the winemaking process takes place by gravity. The gravitational system is a traditional solution on the banks of the River Douro and this wine cellar showcases it with all its up to-date operational capabilities.
The geometry of the cellar's roof interprets the vernacular gable roof structured in wood. This structure is exposed in the winery, and has becomes a sinuous, continuous and organic sculptural element that flows through the tangential curves of the vineyards.
The development uses renewable energy sources, namely geothermal energy, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to provide ideal hydrothermal conditions for wine production and human comfort.
Energy efficiency is fundamental to the winery's design. The building's northerly orientation and its specific insulation ensure optimum indoor temperatures and humidity levels, with limited mechanical climate control. The few windows and skylights frame the landscape and maximize the use of natural light.
Water conservation is also integral to the winery, which lacked public water supply infrastructure. Rainwater is harvested, drinking water sourced from artesian boreholes, and wastewater is treated and recycled for irrigation, cleaning, and fire prevention. Permeable pathways return rainwater to agricultural use, reducing waste and preserving resources.
The landscape design revives native flora, enriching biodiversity and supporting ecosystems that benefit vineyard health and promote economic activities that run parallel to the wine production.
The winery’s main entrance houses a visitor center with a reception area and a wine shop that leads up to a meeting room with an all-glass wall and to the wine tasting area in a spacious balconied gallery, overlooking both the wine ageing area in the central nave of the building and the surrounding landscape. These rooms have access to the vineyard and a stone little old chapel, via a large terrace overlooking the Douro. Events that favor a prestigious wine tourism may be hosted to promote the winery and the region, and celebrate both nature and architecture.
