Mola wine cellar Rogami, Podgorica

Type

Winery

Design 

2012

Location

Podgorica, Montenegro

Program

Family winery with production and small space for degustation

Team

DVARP

Dijana Vučinić

Mola Winery is a family project started as a serious hobby that grew into a serious business. It is settled North of Podgorica, just outside the city where the plains meet hills of Piperi region. Mola vinery has already been established as the most important stop on the wine road in Montenegro. Mola’s vineyards are located in a beautiful landscape in Rogami – covering an area of 20,000 squared meters, including Mrki krš (Dark karst) and Bilo. As the name indicates this land is very inaccessible. The rocky terrain has been transformed into a flourishing vineyard – a green stripe that has been recognized for years by the inhabitants of Rogami and passers-by.

Winemakers at Mola are interested in innovation and with their products they test new technologies and methodologies, such is their biodynamic wine or the white that has been placed underwater in Skadar Lake for aging. They want to use the nature and everything their micro-location has to give them.

That is where we have found our inspiration. The small cellar for wine production, keeping and degustation is placed completely underground. This way it is naturally insulated and snugged in by the terrain that is a mix of rocks and red soil, very porous, but very solid, rich with minerals. The entrance to the cellar is the only part that can be seen as you approach. It is a structure completely built in concrete, done with black pigment. There are side openings that let some light in and an opening on the top that is used during the harvest. The degustation room has a big window facing the entrance. The big table – the social point of the winery, occupies it. The office that is originally planed has never been built as it has felt that it would have been wrong, once the structure for the cellar has been covered back with ground.