Château de Beaucastel: Renovation and extension

To imagine the renovation of Château de Beaucastel in its own way, we focused our programming research on 3 major themes:

• Respecting the environment and biodiversity: Preserving biodiversity, respecting living organisms and natural cycles are at the heart of the Perrin family's philosophy and wine-making. The project was designed to recover and store rainwater, in order to provide a reserve of water dedicated for treating the vines. What's more, the energy required to maintain the cellar temperature between 12 and 14° is considerable. The design of underground or semi-buried buildings, the implementation of bioclimatic principles and the integration of energy-saving or energy-producing devices are all strongly encouraged.
• Optimising the winemaking process: Great wine is made in the vineyard. However, a not inconsiderable part of the work takes place in the cellars, so the process had to be at least respected, if not improved, in order to further improve the quality of the wines and working conditions inside the winery. To achieve this, an enormous amount of understanding and exchange with the various family members involved in wine-making was undertaken to synthesize the current and future financial needs of Château de Beaucastel.
• Affirming the identity of Château de Beaucastel: Château de Beaucastel wine is, it has to be said, a luxury product. Yet it owes this status only to its quality, which derives above all from the richness of the terroir from which it comes, and from the perpetual quest for excellence that has driven the Perrin family for five generations. While one of the challenges of the project was to match the estate's architecture to the notion of luxury conveyed by its product, the Perrin family was keen to assert its peasant character, a winegrower close to the land.