Top-notch earthen clay walls
The monks of the Benedictine Abbey of Gegenbach in the Black Forest surely must have had their own vineyards and made their own wine. Just over the hill from the old abbey, Julia and Simon Huber follow in their footsteps with their winery – and steer it into the future with innovative ideas. You’ll notice this in the top wines you can taste here – and in the space for the tastings. The tasting room design is a modern interpretation of everything that is important to the winemakers: their hometown, the building traditions of the Black Forest region and, of course, the wine and its basis, the soil.
The interplay between modernity and tradition
The Huber family’s winery and wine hotel can be found in a house built in the classic Black Forest style. In addition, they had a modern extension built by the architectural office Müller + Huber. The extension is a structural expression of the place and the wine: a town that grew up around a monastery and a modern wine-growing tradition, a Black Forest farmhouse, the forests and the soil.
The entrance of this new extension leads you right into the heart of the winery and hotel. The two-storey room is characterised by a modern cross-vault ceiling in wood, which harkens back to the monastic origins of the small town of Gegenbach.
A wooden-shingled façade and entryway evoke the mighty roofing style classic to the region, stepping inside you are greeted by impressive earthen-clay walls. They characterise the entrance area, tasting room and wine shop. The walls extend over two storeys up to the gallery.
The connection between clay earth and craftsmanship
“Many of our vineyards stand on clay soil. Moreover, clay is a traditional building material.” This is how winemaker and hotelier Simon Huber sums up the decision to use earthen clay plaster in the building of the new extension.
The special appeal of the metre-high clay-earth walls lies in their modern finish. Just like the architecture of the entire space, it represents the philosophy of the winery: to develop something new and innovative out of the traditional.
For the unusual wall design, clay plaster was applied to the concrete shell walls in a thickness of eight centimetres. The coarse clay-earth topcoat was applied in such a way as to create the impression of broken earth.
An art piece comprised of white branching lines hanging in front of the earth-coloured plaster reminds you of roots pushing through the soil and absorbing the minerals that give the wine its unique taste. You admire this artwork while sipping the result of what it depicts out of the tasting glass in front of you, and the circle closes.
Read more »Creative wall design with building materials from Claytec
The earth is the origin of both wine and the building material clay earth. This shared origin can be seen in the wine hotel’s tasting room in the artistic surface structure of the earthen-clay walls. The special structure was developed by master plasterer Thomas Glück and bears the name “Blackforest-Line”. What makes it special is the impression the structure gives, reminiscent of freshly turned clay-earth.
In the hotel’s wine shop, the craftsmen used brown clay plaster, which was applied to the concrete walls. A pre-treatment with an adhesive plaster ensures a good bond. Afterward, the clay plaster was sprayed on and then a layer of clay finishing plaster was roughly applied. This was then finished to create the decorative look. A top coat of a beeswax-based glaze provides impregnation.
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