Bodegas Protos is a large collective winery based at Peñafiel, a small village near Valladolid in the Ribera del Duero winegrowing region of northern Spain.

To respond to increasing demand and to modernise production, Bodegas Protos commissioned Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners to design a new building, now complete, to process 1 million kilos of grapes a year.

Set at the base of a small hill surmounted by a medieval castle, the new winery – a modern reinterpretation of traditional winery construction – is connected by an underground link to the original Bodegas Protos winery – part of which is a subterranean area beneath the castle with more than 2 kilometres of tunnels and galleries for ageing wine.

The use of traditional materials – locally sourced timber, terracotta tiles, local stone – and the use of form to reduce scale has resulted in a building which complements the traditional architecture of the area and responds to the historic castle which sits directly above it.