Peregrine Winery | Otago

The winery site, a vineyard on the terraced floor of the Gibbston Valley under the Crown Range, is aligned between the existing geology of two schist reefs. Viticulture is now integral to this formerly pastoral area.

The concrete entrance ramp takes the visitor down directly to the heart of the winemaking operation: a 40m long ‘cave’ with lines of oak barrels stretching to an entertaining courtyard. There, in a Spartan ‘monastic’ setting, the viticulture and wine can be contemplated and discussed with experts without the distraction of food or retailing.

The 140m long ‘fly’ roof is both pragmatic and symbolic. It provides the water proofing and support for snow loadings as well as improving the environmental performance of the serviced boxes below by removing most of the solar loading. As a striking gesture in the landscape, it is also a major device for establishing the Peregrine wine brand. The canopy roof may be interpreted as a transformation or metamorphosis reflecting the refining process the grapes go through, as the roof rises from its low slope at the river end to the 25-degree slope at the woolshed end. For the architects, however, the changing roof gradient was inspired by old still images freezing the kinetic rotation of a bird in flight. The roof is evocative of the majesty that the Peregrine or native hawk has as it glides on the thermal uplifts off the heated land.

But in the end the building did not earn its award for careful organization of the production process (not unimportant). The huge calm gently curving silvery canopy floating over the massive base all set among the orderly vineyards, makes an irresistible and poetic vision of civilization and wild nature, and the jury was unanimously convinced by it.

Peter Davey, AR editor for 2004, AR Emerging Architects Award

Awards

NZIA Supreme Architecture Award, 2005

NZIA NZ Architecture Award, 2005

AR Emerging Architects Award, 2004

NZIA Local Architecture Award, 2004

Publications

Best of the best: Urbis best architect 2011. (2011). Design Annual. (65). p. 66

Peregrine winery. (2008, October). A+U. p. 49

Peregrine winery. (2008, November/December). Atrium. pp. 100-102

Guyatt, M. et al. (2008). Peregrine winery. (n.d.). In The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture. London: Phaidon. p. 56

Stathatos, J. (2007, October). Peregrine winery: International Review of Architecture. Dome. pp. 84-93

Chiorino, F., & Maroni, L. (2007). Peregrine Winery. (n.d.). In Architettura e vino: nuove cantine e il culto del vino… Milano: Electa. pp. 40-49

Duran, S.C. (2007). Peregrine winery. Roof Design. Cologne: Daab. pp. 114-117

Stanwick, S., & Fowlow, L. (2006) Peregrine. (n.d.). In Wine by Design. Chichester: Wiley-Academy. pp. 140-147

Peregrine picked by NYT as one of 5 wineries in the world to visit. (2006, December). New Zealand Herald.

Corcuera, A., Asensio, p., & Kliczkowski, H. (2006). Peregrine Wines. Wineries II Bodegas II: Architecture and Design: Arquitectura y diseno. Barcelona: Loft. pp. 184-191

Barrie, A. (2005). Peregrine Winery: Taking Flight. Monument. (68). pp. 52-57

Grape Expectations: Emerging Architecture. (2004, December). The Architectural Review. pp. 46-49

EXHIBITIONS

Peregrine Winery, How Wine Became Modern: Design + Wine 1976 to now, SFMOMA Exhibition, San Francisco, 2010