Press

January 27, Order of Architects of Romania

On Dobrușa Hill

When you reach the top of Dobrușa Hill, you find yourself in a fairytale setting. You sense that it is a fairytale setting even before you learn the story. Take two steps and you know – there must be a story here. 

First, when you reach the top of the hill, the entire sky unfolds above you like a dome that embraces you with cosmic tenderness from above. In cities or other places, you  only have  patches of sky above you, or a flat  and distant sky. In Dobrușa, the sky envelops you; you have as much sky as you can bear. 

Then, you see the Olt River on one side. For me, the Olt River seen from the Dobrușa hill is a spectacle of eternity; you don't even want to call it Olt, you want to call it Alutas Potamos, like Strabo, and you feel a regret that you don't yet know its older name, because nothing is older in the world than the Olt River.

After crossing gentle mountains, undulating plateaus, and a formidable gorge, the Olt slows down on its way to the Danube, widens grandly, and reaches the hills of Drăgășani. Here is what Geo Bogza beautifully says about this meeting of the Olt with the hills: "...the great fame of this patch of land is due to the vineyards. Since ancient times, they have been—as far as the eye can see—the most familiar sight, whose charm encompasses both people and places. Those who live here, in a horizon of sunny amphitheaters (ah, and Geo Bogza did not get to see the Avincis estate, to truly fulfill his observation – n.m.), reveal a different way of being than those in the mountains or on the plains. More serene, more dreamy, more open in conversation and in spirit, they are reminiscent of sailors accustomed to carrying, in the rocking of the ship, from distant lands, priceless liquors and rare fragrances.

From what depths of the soil do the vines extract the divine juice that fills the bunches in autumn? And from what clarity of the sky? The golden grape, itself perfectly spherical, concentrates all the sunlight between the two equinoxes. 

Sap from deep soil, clear skies, sunlight between the two equinoxes—the result of this alchemy is the perfect sphere of the grape!

Here, on the hill of Dobrușa, you begin to feel the living traces of the great mystery broken into small wonders: the landscape, the air, the vineyard, the grapes and the wine, the Stoica family...  

The album we are launching today illustrates these small wonders, as I say, living traces of the great mystery, broken into each of them...

In Book V of the Aeneid, Virgil tells us that Aeneas performs a series of rituals at the tomb of his father Anchises—rituals that also involved wine—and that, at one point, a snake with golden skin appears from his father's tomb , slithering amiably, as the ritual continues. Aeneas is happy because this snake shows him that the spirit of the place has been completed with his father's spirit and accepts his prayer. Commenting on this passage sometime in the 5th century, Servius Gramaticus formulates the well-known sentence: Nullus enim locus sine Genio – there is no place without its spirit. 

We, today, no longer have such a close connection with the unseen world as the ancients did, so today we would say that there is no place without its own personality. The most recent ones call it "vibe." 

Allow me to be old-fashioned when I think of Dobrușa and continue to call it spirit. To say that Dobrușa has "vibe" or personality is a bit of an understatement—it seems to me that you are doing the place an injustice. The place has its own spirit. 

When we remember this belief of the Romans, we only remember half of it. Genius, meaning spirit, is not only found in places but also in people, and this genius loci was, in fact, the connection between people and places. And today we say "the people of the place" without realizing that the expression is almost synonymous, in an existential sense, with "the place of the people." The appearance of the snake with skin like gold in the story of Aeneas indicates precisely this—the connection between man and place. 

Dobrușa is a place whose spirit was amputated for decades after losing its human counterpart. By recovering and expanding the estate, the Stoica family brought back the peace of the spirit to the place. With the Stoica family, Dobrușa has found its people again, and Avincis is the wonderful fruit of this reunion, the golden snake that emerges from the lands of Dobrușa, summoned by the Stoica family's ritual of love and care.   The genius loci of Dobrușa is now a fulfilled and fruitful spirit, restored by the reconnection of the right place with the right people. Well, what we see now, in the album, is the golden snake of Dobrușa. 

I saw a superb evocation of the encounter with the place by Mr. Alexandru Beldiman, the architect of the Avincis ensemble. There, Mr. Beldiman spoke of the meaning of the place, which he says he found and which inspired him. It is immediately apparent, as he performed an architectural ritual there that was so well received by the spirit of the place. The Stoica family's love for Dobrușa brought Dobrușa the architect awaited by the spirit of the place. I agree that we can call it spirit and meaning; in any case, it is better than "vibe." Nothing vibrates in Dobrușa. There is so much peace and beauty there!

At first glance, what you see in this album is a work of architecture. A great work of architecture. I would even say a masterpiece of architecture. But don't forget that the ultimate goal of any architecture, as is the case with any art, in fact, is to be more than it appears, to be more than its materiality or, more precisely, to offer a materiality that has the ability to transcend itself, through itself, giving meaning, significance, serving a purpose. And in architecture, the unseen is the real stake of the seen. 

The Dobrușa complex, as you know, consists mainly of two buildings. The first, the old one, embodies an impressive philosophy of restoration. Mr. Beldiman says that, on his first visit, he found a ruin with a roof, which he immediately took a liking to. Well, now restored, the mansion is a gem that you fall in love with as soon as you see it.  The second element, the new one, affirms a seductive organic architecture, as today's specialists call it. The wine cellar blends in perfectly, almost camouflaging itself, in the quiet yet stately hillside. The beautiful and comfortable old age of the mansion is extended, after a spacious , into a beautiful and comfortable winery, because what is known today as "winery architecture," and has a prime example in Dobrușa, means building according to the aesthetic criteria of a production flow, it means converting winemaking into architecture. 

If you sit in front of the mansion to soak up its charm, all you have to do is turn your head to the right   and see the gentle, long, patient line of the winery, like any winemaking, and you say to yourself, breathing in the fresh air: "That's right!" Nothing more. That's right! Harmony is achieved, the perfect sphere of the grape is realized! 

The old and the new, the last century and this century, engage in architectural dialogue in a landscaped space designed specifically to allow the freedom so necessary for an encounter with wine. For wine, ladies and gentlemen, is not only the occasion, but the catalyst for all this splendor. I would like to quote a fragment from a famous text about wine, written by one of the greatest and most talented wine drinkers who ever lived, Charles Baudelaire, slightly adapted. Here it is: "Profound joys of Avincis wine, who has not known you? Those who wanted to appease their remorse, evoke a memory, drown their sorrow, build a castle in Spain, in the end, all invoked you, mysterious god hidden in the fibers of the vine. How magnificent are the spectacles of Avincis wine, illuminated by an inner sun! How true and burning is this second youth that springs from the depths of man! But how frightening are the fleeting pleasures and the irritating delights. And yet, tell me, judges, lawmakers, men of the world, all of you whom happiness tames and wealth instantly makes virtuous and healthy, tell me in your heart and conscience, which of you would have the ruthless courage to condemn the one who drinks genius? 

Sometimes I think I hear the Avincis wine saying: "Speak with your soul, with that voice of the spirit that only spirits can hear—'Man, my dear, despite the glass prison and cork bars, I want to send you an eternal song, a song full of joy, light, and hope. I am not ungrateful; I know I owe you my life. I know how much you have endured, toiling under the scorching sun. You gave me life, I will repay you. I will pay my debt generously: for I am overcome with extraordinary joy when I flow into the depths of a throat thirsty from so much toil. The chest of an honest man is a dwelling much more to my liking than these melancholic and insensitive cellars. It is a joyful tomb, where I enthusiastically fulfill my destiny. I cause great disorder in the stomach of the laborer and from there, on invisible stairs, I climb into his brain, where I perform my supreme dance.

Can you hear the magnificent refrains of ancient times, the songs of love and glory, stirring and echoing within me? They are the soul of the homeland, half gallant, half military. They are the hope of Sundays. Work brings prosperity to the days, wine brings happiness to Sundays. With your elbows on the family table and your sleeves rolled up, you will praise me proudly and be truly satisfied. 

I will make the eyes of your old wife shine, your companion in your daily pains and your oldest hopes. I will soften her gaze and put the sparkle of youth back in her pupils. And to your little one, poor and yellowed donkey harnessed to the same fatigue as the old nag, I will restore the beautiful colors of the cradle, and I will be for this new athlete of life the oil that strengthened the muscles of ancient warriors. 

Like a vegetable ambrosia, I will roll into the depths of your chest. I will be the grain that fertilizes the painfully dug furrow. Intimate, our closeness will create poetry. We will make a God just for the two of us and we will soar towards infinity, like birds, butterflies, spider webs, scents and all winged things." 

This is how Avincis wine sings in its mysterious language. Unfortunate is the one whose selfish heart, closed to the suffering of his brothers, has never heard this song! 

No doubt I have told you nothing new. Avincis wine is known to all; it is loved by all. When a true philosopher-physician exists, which is not at all predictable, he could conduct a thorough study, a kind of double psychology with Avincis wine and man as its components. He would explain why and how certain drinks have the power to magnify the personality of the thinking being and to create, so to speak, a third person, a mystical operation in which primitive man and wine, the animal god and the plant god, play the roles of the Father and the Son in the Holy Trinity; they give birth to the Holy Spirit, the superior man, who springs from both of them. 

There are people for whom the invigoration provided by Avincis wine is so powerful that their legs become more sure and their hearing excessively keen. I knew a guy whose weakened eyesight regained its full initial penetrating power when he was drunk. Avincis wine transforms the mole into an eagle. 

An ancient unknown author once said: The joy of the man who drinks Avincis wine is matched only by the joy of Avincis wine being drunk. In fact, Avincis wine plays such an intimate role in human life that I would not be surprised if, seduced by a pantheistic idea, some thinking minds attributed a kind of personality to it. Avincis wine and man seem to me like two fighters who, being friends, constantly confront each other and constantly make up. The defeated always embraces the victory.