Situated on the hills south of Riviersonderend, the site embraces a full northern view of the picturesque Riviersonderend mountain range outside Greyton. Towards the south are the endless rolling hills of the Overberg, giving way to an equally perpetual south-easter wind during summer. These conditions informed the U-shaped courtyard building with its back on the wind and its arms stretching out to the mountains.

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The clients have a boutique wine label, currently produced in Greyton, which they want to upgrade to a 50 ton winery and restaurant/tasting room. At this intimate scale we overlapped the visitor's area significantly with the working areas. A service entrance for deliveries and workings was placed on the western side with a cold room, office, and equipment store on either side. This intimate entrance court is wide enough for a small truck to fit in, but also landscaped along the western arm up to the windowless vinoteque to provide repose after hard work. The working area for destemming and crushing has been moved into the courtyard to shield workers from the wind. The fermentation area is placed on the south side of the courtyard with its roof extending sufficiently into the courtyard to provide cover when working. The maturation area is placed on its east with the eastern arm of the courtyard extending northwards from it, allowing for a direct visual connection from the restaurant/tasting room into the maturation area. The fermentation and maturation areas are insulated by the buildings other functions on the sun-exposed sides to mitigate energy demand for cooling. The bottling area is a double volume roofed space between the fermentation and maturation areas, serving as the exit of the wine making process but also the entrance for visitors. The route to the restaurant therefore goes through the beauty of the wine making process, and ultimately shares the courtyard on good weather days.

Tectonically, the building conveys the bucolic simplicity of rural living through the use of white, rough plastered walls placed on a stone plinth and floor built with rock from the site, an elegant curved wall around the service area, a timber roof structure and two large timber sliding doors.