Traditional underground wine cellars, an example of

sustainable construction in the Mediterranean area.

Martín Ocaña, Silvia; Mateos Jimenez Leonardo; Cañas Guerrero, Ignacio;

Departamento de Construcción y Vías Rurales. Escuela Técnica

Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos. Universidad Politécnica de
Madrid. Avda. Complutense s/n. 28040. Madrid.
Tel: 913365767, Fax: 913365625, mail: icanas@cvr.etsia.upm.es

Keywords: reuse, wine cellar, indoor climate

Abstract: In Spain there is a long vine-grower tradition, shared between other Mediterranean
countries as Italy and France. Due to the climatic and geological conditions, in some
Spanish vine-producing regions, underground constructions have developed as a system
for the wine conservation. This is achieved because inside underground cellars the
temperature is almost constant along the year at a low level and the relative humidity is
high, so the environment is beneficial for the wine ageing and conservation. Traditional
underground cellars can be considered as a system of sustainable construction, since its
maintenance requires no energy contribution. In this paper we show the results from the
inventory work about underground traditional cellars carried out in a Spanish typical
wine-producing district, the Ribera del Duero in Soria province. One of the problems in
the Mediterranean area is the growing increase in energy used for the cooling of
buildings, due to the severity of the summer. The underground cellars involve a
traditional solution for that problem, even more taking into account that wine ageing is
affected by high temperatures. As well as the energetic advantages, the underground
cellars form beautiful groups that should be studied in order to be reused or recovered.

1 INTRODUCTION
Spain is the third wine producer country in the world after France and Italy, it has
the largest area of vineyard with 1,140,000 hectares. In Spain there are some specific
areas where high quality wines are produced. Nowadays there are 61 recognized
areas, called Apellation of Origin (official classification of Spanish wines based on
the Statute of Wine). The studied area is a district in the province of Soria and
belonging to the Apellation of Origin of Ribera del Duero. The viniculture in
“Ribera del Duero” started by the beginning of the 11th century. At the end of the
13th century there are proofs of the creation of new wineries in the district, the called
“pagos” near fortifications and monasteries. Also, underground buildings were
constructed on hills and mountains. Therefore, the landscape was covered of piles of
stone rising from the soil (the chimneys) and small earthen hillocks (the cannons),
constituting the traditional underground wine cellars. They were built for the
conservation and storage of the surplus of wine. The wine productions were
increasing and the cellars were enlarged, even linking different villages between
them and crossing rivers and hills. These cellars were considered as wine temples in
that time. They were cool and calm places, where wine rested. This joined to the
silence and darkness resulted in complex and mature wines with higher organoleptic
qualities. These catacombs excavated in the soil could be small underground towns,
crowned by stone chimneys which served to ventilate the cellar. Underground wine
cellars were typical constructions not only in the “Ribera del Duero” but in other
wine-producing regions where the climatic and geologic characteristics are suitable
for them. However, lot of underground cellars were abandoned during the past
century because of the construction of large commercial wineries that chose another
type of building in order to facilitate the works inside. Nowadays, some
underground cellars run the risk of extinction since the lack of use reduce the
maintenance labours. In the Department of Construction and Rural Roads, we have
been working in this district some time, analyzing traditional rural buildings
(Fuentes 2003). In this paper we show the results from the study about traditional
underground cellars. We think that it is necessary a previous knowledge of the
abandoned buildings in order to assess the advantages for their reuse.

2 THE STUDIED AREA

The studied area includes an extension of 2450 km2 corresponding to 32

municipalities. In figure 1 it is shown the situation of the studied area in the Iberian
Peninsula.
The population in each municipality is in general under 500 inhabitants. The most
significant villages are San Esteban de Gormaz and Burgo de Osma.
The “Ribera del Duero” is situated on a Miocene field of sediments along the Duero
basin. The majority of the sediments are made of lenticular layers of mud and clay,
in addition there is an alternation of limestone and loam layers. The relief is
constituted by hills between rivers with altitudes around 911 m and valleys with
altitudes between 750 and 850 m.
The “Ribera del Duero” has a Mediterranean climate with continental characteristics
and more than 2400 sunshine hours. The pluviometry is low-moderate (450 mm),
the summers are short hot and dry (until 40ºC) and the winters are long and cold (-
18ºC). The thermal oscillations are marked both yearly and daily. See table 1 for
more details.
Table 1 Climate data from two different weather stations in the district.

Location ALT P PE TMF T TMC TMMF F OSC TMMC C

San Esteban 900 481 23 3.7 11.9 21.2 -1.7 - 14.3 30.3 40.5
de Gormaz 21.0
Burgo de 895 546 22 2.3 10.4 19.8 -2.5 - 14.0 29.3 40.0

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Osma 22.0

ALT: altitude above the sea level (m); P: mean annual rainfall (mm); PE: minimum monthly
rainfall in summer (mm); TMF: coldest mean monthly temperature (ºC); T: mean annual
temperature (ºC); TMC: hottest mean monthly temperature (ºC); TMMF: mean minimum
temperature of the coldest month (ºC); F: absolute minimum temperature (ºC); OSC: mean
annual oscillation of daily temperature (ºC); TMMC: mean maximum temperature of the
hottest month (ºC); C: absolute maximum temperature (ºC)

Figure 1 Location of the studied area.

3 FINDING THE WINE CELLARS

The first step when analyzing the constructive typologies is to locate the building.
This study only includes the wine cellars with their own organization and not those
placed under the house. For the cellars under houses the location is quite difficult

3
and the reuse is restricted.
Aerial photos help us to find groups of wine cellars in the vicinity of the villages,
and in some cases we could list them. In figure 2 we can see the aerial photo from
the village of Atauta.

Figure 2 Top: Aerial photo from Atauta, the group of cellars is clearly visible.
Bottom: Digital photo from the group of cellars.

In a later step, the studied area was visited in order to compile information from the
wine cellars. In this step 482 cellars in 22 municipalities were geo-referenced (see
table 2).
Table 2 Referenced wine cellars in different villages of the studied area.
Localidad Number of re
Alcozar 5
Alcubilla del Marqués 9
Aldea 1
Atauta 100
Bocigas 5
Castillejo de Robledo 51
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 Fuentecambrón 6
Gormaz 1
Ines 2
Langa de Duero 3
Miño de San Esteban 1
Morcuera 72
Navapalos 1
Olmillos 1
Peñalba 4
Piquera 3
Quintanas 4
Recuerda 126
Rejas 1
Soto de San Esteban 74
Valdanzo 1
Velilla 3

Altogether there are between 500 and 600 underground cellars in this district. They
are assembled in architectural groups in which the typical earthen hillocks, the
chimneys and the entrance doors attract the attention of foreign people.

4 TYPE OF WINE CELLARS.

Although most of the traditional underground cellars share lots of constructive
elements, in the studied district we found various types of cellars. There are different
criteria for the assessment of the typologies, however, the first difference between
cellars is their location. There are two basic situations: 1) wine cellars whose caves
are placed in the deep soil, this is the most common situation. The downward
cannon forms a ridged silhouette on the landscape. 2) Wine cellars excavated on
hills, the cannons and caves cross the hill horizontally, so they are lacking in
downward stairs. Figure 3 shows us the section of the two situations.

5
 Figure 3 Section of two cellars in different location.

The similarities amongst all the analyzed cellars allow us to classify them according
to the next criteria: 1) Length of caves, 2) Existence of ramifications, 3) Type of
entrance and 4) Existence of chimney.
The length was measured inside the cave because this is the useful space for the
storage of wine in barrels. According to this criterion, we have classified the wine
cellars in short cellars (length under 6 m), medium cellars (length between 6 and 9
m) and long cellars (length higher than 9 m).
Depending on the ramifications, there are wine cellars with only one cave and
cellars with different caves sharing the same entrance and cannon and which usually
belong to different owners.
In view of the type of entrance, we found the next types: a) Simple entrance, b)
entrance with hut, c) Entrance with a picnic area and d) Entrance with wine press
(See figure 4 where picture of these types are showed).
The simple entrance is the common type in this district. It simply consists of a
wooden door which gives direct access to the cannon. The entrance with hut consists
in a larger development of the entrance space. It is usually made of local stone, and
sometimes it is built to change the orientation of the door towards another more
favourable. The North orientation of doors is wanted because it helps to maintain the
coolness inside the cave. The picnic area is larger than the hut. It is used as a
meeting place to taste the wines stored in the cave. The press house is a little larger
than the picnic area. This is the place where the grapes are pressed to obtain must. In
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every entrance type, the entrances doors are provided with holes of different sizes
whose aim to enable light ventilation inside the cellar.

Simple entrance Entrance with hut

Picnic area Entrance with wine

press

Figure 4 Different entrance types of cellars.

The chimney is a common element in long cellars in order to increase the ventilation
level. It is a vertical tube excavated in the soil which shows on the exterior, adding a
new element to the landscape. Figure 5 shows us the exterior view of various
chimneys.

Figure 5 Chimneys in wine cellars.

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5 UNDERGROUND CELLARS AS SUSTAINABLE
BUILDINGS

As mentioned in the first part of this paper, lots of traditional cellars are abandoned
and there are in a terrible state of conservation just due to the lack of use. With
reference to the physical state of wine cellars, the type of soil where the cellar is
excavated has a significant influence. In soils with a high content of sand we could
see more cellar collapses. However, one of the most important parameter is the
continuous maintenance which reduces the problems caused by water infiltrations.
Because of this, we suggest to analyze in detail these traditional buildings in order to
be able of pointing out the advantages of reusing them for the wine ageing as well as
for the conservation of the cultural heritage in the studied district, in a way of
avoiding their disappearance. In last years, the Local Action Group in the district has
joined to this initiative, managing funds from the European Union for the
rehabilitation and conservation of vernacular rural buildings.
In this section we want to emphasize the sustainable characteristics of traditional
underground cellars. Firstly, we should point out that the reuse of abandoned
buildings by itself is a sustainable practice. The reuse involves a reduction in the
construction life cycle, therefore the consumption of energy and construction
materials is lower and so the CO2 emissions and waste materials generation. Figure
6 shows us the construction life cycle.

Figure 6 Phases in the construction life cycle (Harris 1999)

8
The embodied energy in building materials for the construction of a new building is
higher than those required for the rehabilitation of an existing one 1.
Furthermore, one of the characteristics more appreciated in underground wine
cellars for the ageing and conservation of wines is the almost constant temperature
around 12ºC during the year inside the caves. Moreover, the relative humidity in the
cave is high, this fact also favour the conservation of wines in barrels. However, not
all the cellars have the same thermal performance. The layer of soil covering the
cave plays an important role in the temperature stabilization.

5.1. Climate inside underground cellars.

An important amount of Spanish wine reaches the market after a period of variable
duration inside oak barrels, in which wine acquires the desired organoleptic
characteristics. During the time of wine ageing, the climate inside the cellar is a
determining factor in order to obtain high quality wines. The expert oenologists
indicate that the ageing facilities should carry out some conditions of temperature
and relative humidity to assure a good wine evolution and to avoid excessive wine
looses (Vogt 1971; Bondiac 1980; Troost 1985; Ribéreau-Gayon et al. 2002). High
temperatures can cause a quick wine evolution, increasing the wine losses by
evaporation and even can damage its characteristics. On the contrary, low
temperatures can restrain the ageing process, although they favour the natural
stabilization of wines. From the bibliographic review we can conclude that the
optimal temperature for wine ageing is under 15ºC, with annual oscillations lower
than 6ºC and more than 80% of relative humidity.
With this assumption, we could try to reuse those cellars whose caves possess these
climatic conditions, so no energy supply would be necessary during the performance
phase of the building. One available option would be the development of massive
monitoring in different groups of cellars in order to determine which ones fulfil the
desired climatic conditions. However, this system needs lot of time and economic
resources. Therefore, we have resorted to a model, well accepted, for the assessment
of soil temperature at any depth (Labs 1979). The model originates from the
research done by Kusuda and Achenbach in 1965 in which the soil temperature were
registered in 47 different points from EEUU. The experimental soil temperature for
each station was analyzed by a least-squares procedure to obtain a best fit to a
simplified sinusoidal temperature model. The model is based on the Fourier heat
conduction general equation:

∂T/∂t = α (∂2T/∂x2 +∂2T/∂y2 +∂2T/∂z2) (1)

Where T is the temperature (ºC), t is the time (s) and α is the soil thermal diffusivity
(m2/s).

1
It is true only when the selected buildings to be reused are not dilapidated.
9
It is considered that the soil area is semi-infinite to miss the heat flux in the
horizontal (x) and cross (y) direction out. The model assumes that the soil thermal
conductivity, specific heat and density are constants along the time t and depth z.
The parameter connecting the soil temperature with the type of soil is the thermal
diffusivity, this thermal parameter is an index of the facility with which the soil will
undergo a temperature change. It is proportional to the thermal conductivity and
inversely proportional to the density and specific heat.
Equation 1 can only be solved if there is a boundary condition, the proposed
boundary condition considers that the surface temperature is conducted either
directly or indirectly by the solar radiation flux, therefore it varies sinusoidally with
time:

T(0,t) = Tm – As cos[2π/365(t – t0 )] (2)

The solution of equation 1 for the boundary condition (2) is the known Labs
equation, which provides the soil temperature at depth z in the time t by means of
the following equation:

T(x,t) = Tm – As e –x √ π/ 365α cos{2π/365[t – t0 – (x/2)(√365/ πα)]} (3)

Where T(z,t) is the temperature of soil at depth z (m) at time t (days); T m is the mean
annual earth temperature (ºC); As is the amplitude of surface temperature wave
(z=0, ºC); t is the time of the year; t0 the phase constant (days) and α is the soil
thermal conductivity (m2/day).
For the climatic conditions in the district and considering an average soil, the
equation (3) could be:

T(x,t) = 9.76 + 9.65 e–0,31 x cos(t – 35 – 18.06x) (4)

Equation 4 provides us with the soil temperature evolution along the year in terms of
depth.
According to the oenologists´ observations, we are interested in the annual
maximum and minimum temperatures at different depths to get an idea about which
cellars have “a priori” more environmental advantages. In table 4 we show the
results from the application of the model with the above mentioned conditions.
Table 4 Annual maximum and minimum soil temperatures (ºC) in terms of
depth.
Mean maximum Mean minimum Amplitude
Outdoor 21.8 4.2 17.6
At 1 m depth 16.1 3.5 12.6
At 2 m depth 13.9 5.6 8.3
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At 3 m depth 12.5 7.1 5.4
At 4 m depth 11.5 8.0 3.5
At 5 m depth 10.9 8.6 2.3

As it can be seen, the annual temperature oscillation from 3 m depth is lower than
6ºC, with a maximum temperature under 15ºC, therefore the requirements for wine
ageing are fulfilled. With the aim of checking the accuracy of the results from the
model, some wine cellars were monitored during different time. In table 5 the results
from the monitoring is showed.
Table 5 Measured temperatures (ºC) in various cellars in the district (from
May to December 2004).
Temperature Cellar 1 Cellar 2 Cellar 3 Cellar 4
Depth:2.8 Depth:2.1 Depth:2 m Depth:5 m
m m
Maximum 15.2 15.6 14.5 11.4
Minimum 7.0 9.4 7.4 6.6
Average 11.1 12.4 11.5 10.0
Amplitude 8.2 6.2 7.1 4.8

Although the temperatures from the model are not just fitting to the measured ones,
the differences are not very significant so we can use the model as an approach with
regards to the thermal performance inside caves. Undoubtedly, if we need more
accurate results from the model, we should take into account the specific soil where
the cellar is excavated. In addition, temperatures in caves are influenced by other
parameters besides the soil temperature, as ventilation inside the cave that here is
avoided to simplify the solution.
Another important factor is the relative humidity. In some cellars the measured
relative humidity was as high as 100% during variable times, with water
condensations on their walls. This fact can cause the development of fungus that as a
last resort could transfer unpleasant flavours and smells to the wine. Usually, it
happens in long cellars whose caves are poorly ventilated. But there are other
circumstances where humidity problems can appear: 1) when there exists rainwater
infiltrations, mainly in sandy soils and 2) when the water table is shallow so the cave
can flood in specific periods.

6 CONCLUSIONS

As explained along this paper, the reuse of abandoned buildings is a sustainable

practice since the energy and construction materials consumption is reduced by the
11
reduction in the construction life cycle. On the other hand, thermal performance of
underground cellars can be optimal for wine ageing. It is demonstrated by the
application of a theoretical model for assessment of soil temperature in terms of
depth. According to the model, those cellars, whose caves are more than 3 m deep,
fulfil the temperature desired for wine ageing with no energy use. However, the cave
depth is not the only parameter affecting the indoor climate, as it is shown by the
monitoring results. The different pattern of use, the ventilation level, the type of soil
and the water level depth should be considered too.
The previous step in the reuse process is the location of the buildings. Aerial photos
were very helpful in this step. Later fieldwork is needed in order to analyze the
buildings and define typologies. As well as the aesthetic parameters, and the
physical condition, the criteria related to the thermal performance of the cellar
should be appreciated.

REFERENCES

Harris, D.J. 1999. A quantitative approach to the assessment of the environmental

impact of building materials. Building and Environment, 34: 751 – 758.
Fuentes Pardo, J.M. 2003. Metodología para la reutilización de construcciones
agrarias. Caso particular: Estudio de edificios agrarios tradicionales para
su reutilización en la ribera del Duero soriana. Tesis doctoral. (PhD thesis,
unpublished). Madrid: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Labs K (1981). Regional analysis of ground and above-ground climate, Conclusion.
Underground Space, 7, 37 – 65.
Troost, G.1985. Tecnología del Vino. Madrid: Ediciones Omega, S.A.
Bondiac, E. 1980. Elaboración de vinos, vinificación moderna. 4ª Edición. Editorial
Sintes, S.A. Barcelona.
Vogt, E. 1971. Fabricación de vinos. Zaragoza: Editorial Acribia.
Ribéreau-Gayon, P; Glories, Y; Maujean, A; Dubourdieu, D. 2002. Tratado de
enología, volumen 2: Química del vino, estabilización y tratamientos.
Madrid: Editorial hemisferio Sur. Ediciones Mundi-Prensa.

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