Just 4 km from our place is this most unique winery. It is built next to an old Templar castle and has a vaulted ceiling that is at least 30 feet tall.. The cellar is buried under earth and the back wall is the native rock face of the Alpilles mountains, Twice a year, on the solstices, light shined from the top of the cellar to the bottom. It shines through the center of the spiral staircase down four stories to the cellar floor where the barrels are. That is a distance of 100 feet or more from the top of the light collector to the bottom copper energy concentrator. Our guide told us that they were able to locate an energy center (vortex for the folks in Sedona) and then build the facility around this. They used old Templar knowledge and units. So everything is aligned to the moon, the sun. the earths magnetic field and them movements of the stars. They went as far as using cubits were the unit of measure. It is located right next to a glider airport. These gliders are catapulted by a cable system. The cable is 2500 to 4000 feet long and a powerful winch pulls the cable. When the glider gains the desired speed and altitude, it releases the cable. We were a mile away and I could hear the cable land with t thud!
The Alpilles Mountains, we could see then from our place
Craggy and rugged
One of many gliders we saw and heard during our visit
The also grow olives and the display on the wall features their olive oil
A window with the logo
Wine making tools
Some outdoor art
Behind this door is a mystery, refer to Dan Brown's latest novel
Two level stainless steel vats for reds
Three level vats for whites
The architectural drawings
Concrete gothic archways
The old "Sun in the Eye" logo
The vision it took to make this place a reality back in 1992
The raw stone that makes up one wall of the cellar
They press the residue from the reds and make grappa from it. Here it is being aged
Its hard to grasp the sheer size of this space. The barrels hold 1000 gallons and reached 6 feet up off the floor. So the height is 20 to 30 feet tall. This is just the first floor!
The wine library. Many years and types of wines stored for reference
Here lies the energy locus and the sun shines down on it during the solstice
It was not solstice time but we could look up and see the light
Down from the top you can see the copper energy distributor
These are the tops of the bid stainless vats. Good for mixing up the skins each day.
The top dome is also huge. We really liked the curved beams.
All the way down
A viewing area at the top of the dome
You would never know that the vats, cellar, tasting room and all of that is below this unassuming portal
A bridge over the Rhone river out by Arles
Glider #12
Everything is built huge!
A magnum bottle of the good stuff
Dan Brown can tell you why this is located here
This may be how they located the energy field. Is this a Templar grasshopper
Stairway to heaven
The Templar Castle
The ruins go on for a way
Grape vines, almond trees and the ruins of a castle
The glider has landed!
