The new Enoteca, which is much more than just a venue, aims to be an exclusive meeting place – elegant yet at the same time welcoming and informal – where guests can embark on a multi-sensory journey through food and wine.
1954 – Cantine Universali was founded in the historic centre of Ragusa and is spread across the ground-floor commercial premises of two distinct buildings, which are separate both structurally and in terms of when they were built, and which face onto two streets at slightly different levels. The entrance opens onto the premises of the building situated at the lower level, along the main street, leading into the retail area. This is characterised by the presence of the counter and full-height wooden bottle racks, creating a warm, welcoming and vibrant atmosphere. The labels glisten amongst the oak and walnut, set against a mineral floor of local stone slabs. From here, one can sense the layout of the wine shop: a succession of irregular, almost vernacular spaces, carved out of the walls of the existing buildings, on ascending levels, connected by small flights of steps. The stone slabs on the floor cover the entire route, through the various rooms and their staircases, which resemble small waterfalls between interconnected lakes. From the shop’s contemporary, urban and extroverted atmosphere, one enters spaces that gradually become quieter, more textured and introspective. The walls clad in wood and copper give way to stone-block masonry forming barrel vaults, bathed in the raking light of floor-mounted spotlights, which highlight their rough and irregular surface. The wooden furniture gives way to slender, sculptural bottle racks crafted from anthracite-coloured metal bars. From the contemporary to the antique, from the present to the past. In this way, the journey through space is also a journey through time. The transition between these two dimensions is further emphasised by the inner courtyard, covered by a sheet of glass to allow natural light to filter into the atrium, the lifeblood of the lush vegetation. The final room, the former storeroom, is used for wine tasting and is furnished in a minimalist style. Slender tables and chairs with metallic weaves allow the textural quality of the vaulted ceiling to shine through. Light streaming from the floor creates abstract patterns of shadows on the vaulted ceiling, which proudly displays the marks of time and its numerous alterations. The void in the floor immediately catches the eye: an ancient cistern, repurposed as a cellar for the finest wines and sealed with extra-clear tempered laminated glass. The composition is completed by the rear section, which forms the concluding element of the entire project: a copper-coloured service block housing further refrigerated wine cabinets, the air-conditioning system and the toilets. A further leap from one dimension to another, a total immersion in colour before reaching the toilets, where the room’s dominant material—stone in its various forms—reappears.
The most significant structural intervention was the creation of the central opening in the retail area, using metal framing, specifically to establish a visual connection between all areas of the project. This made it possible to achieve the smoothest and most linear route possible through the project’s
various settings, which gradually lead from the contemporary to the ancient, from the present to the past, in a succession of ever-changing scenes.
The wine racks in the entrance/retail area have been designed as dense three-dimensional patterns. The wine emerges from the pores of an enveloping, highly structured wooden membrane. The lighting forms part of the project’s surfaces, integrated amongst the compositional elements. It reveals, enhances and, at times, conceals; it follows the project’s lines in a sinuous manner, caressing them.
Attention to detail, the interplay of materials, the balance of forms, the harmonisation of light. These are just some of the lofty ambitions that have guided the entire design and construction process for the creation of a veritable ‘wunderkammer’ in which guests can experience the most authentic essence of the products – an essence that also comprises archetypal images, ancestral memories, traditions from times long past, echoes of lived experiences.