Urban Exploration - The Abandoned Red Wine Cellar

We received photos from a traveler and compiled them into a historical summary.

A few months ago, I cracked open an "urbex map," and if there's one thing I can say, it's that I didn't expect to harvest such a torrent of crap. For months, I've been visiting locations and cursing every time they turn out to be duds: four filthy walls for an interior that is entirely empty and meaningless - not to mention the countless sites that are completely bricked up.

In short, after yet another crushing failure - the place was about as interesting as a semi-depressed oyster - I noticed I had a second point in the same town. Ugh... I'm not going. It's only three hundred meters away. Ugh... I'm still not going. I have plenty of time on my hands... Ugh... I'm going, but I know I shouldn't haaaaaaaave... To top it off, it requires a fair bit of climbing; it's not exactly easy. What on earth am I doing here?

The interior is a wine cellar - a chai - filled with massive vats where the wine is stored. The architecture of these places is rather standardized; it's actually amusing to see that the Tursan cellars in the Landes are perfectly identical to this one. Here, more than the light, it's the colors that stand out: the marriage of red and blue creates a universe of radiant beauty. I have to say, I'm won over!

The three floors offer radically different atmospheres. The bottom is darkness, humidity, and cold. In a single word: a dungeon. The middle floor is balance, wine, and beauty. The top floor is above the vats - an airy, colorful space, also colonized by a few administrative offices, a busy black redstart, and a lab. Navigating from one to the other in complete serenity made for a truly great moment. I didn't expect it at all.

The abandonment of the site is likely due to the establishment of a very modern facility right next door, still owned and managed by the same group of winemakers.