Architecture studio Bergmeisterwolf has added a bronze funnel that appears to erupt from the ground above the 12th-century Pacherhof wine cellar in Italy.

Modern wine production and tasting facilities are contained within the tower, which connects to the existing cellar via an underground passage.

Bergmeisterwolf Architekten's extension to the Pacherhof wine cellar in South Tyrol gives visitors and guests of the Pacherhof Wine Hotel the chance to see the wine-making process up close.

The facility is a dramatic intervention into an otherwise quiet landscape, dug into a shallow slope and surrounded by rolling green hills and portions of stone wall. The bronze tower is a reference to the surrounding landscape.

"In the highest angle of the site, a funnel-shaped polygonal tower clad in bronze panels emerges from the site, playing with the mountain peaks," said the architecture studio.

The facility is entered through a large opening that can be closed by sliding across a large concrete wall.

Inside the tower a steel staircase leads to a tunnel that connects with the Pacherhof wine cellar's original vaulted structure, which dates from the 12th century.

Above ground the blunt pyramid contains a tasting room and office spaces within a rough plaster-lined interior.

This is designed to contrast the sleek exterior and modern steel machinery and reference the rough existing stonework of the old cellar.

Smooth wooden panelling and furniture units help bring some warmth to the office areas, and in the tasting room a large wooden table sits beneath a vaulted ceiling.

A skylight and corner window in the upper level brings light into the workspaces, while framing views of the nearby vineyards.

Other projects by the practice include a monolithic concrete house in South Tyrol, which was designed around a similar concept of growing out of its surrounding terrain.

French designer Philippe Starck has also used metal to for a winery, creating a blade-shaped wine cellar clad in steel in Bordeaux.

Photography is by Gustav Willeit.