Killka

About Killka

In a place touched by the sun and the Andes’ winds, with its magnificent landscape. A place that it’s also a moment in the life of the one who visits it. A place where the respect for the land and the costumes is present from its construction, made with natural materials, paying tribute to the roots of the Andean culture. Like this, the spirit of past generations joins the hopes for a better future, creating a present where the only premise is enjoying the scenery. The nature. The art. This is Killka. This, and many more things that are not written, that are felt.

"In the Uco Valley, in Mendoza, Bodegas Salentein harmoniously meets with the place’s nature and culture."

Killka’s architecture as the collection’s vessel

The original idea in Killka’s projection was creating a first-rate center as important as the bodega itself. The project’s foundation was to accentuate the idea of a cultural space in the middle of the nature, maintaining a deep respect for it, towards the environment, and Mendoza’s community as a whole. At a conceptual level, Killka was planned as a cultural space, where the visitor could experience everything related to viniculture and, on top of that, enjoy the valuable Argentinian and Dutch contemporary art collection of the 19^th and the 20^th century.

In this way, this place becomes an indisputable cultural space, where wine and art join in an architectonic environment created solely for that purpose.

Tour

The planned tour over this center enters through a wide frontal gallery, which opens completely to the squared central patio, with a sliding water floor and surrounding galleries. This art space has allegoric murals and sculptures related to work and irrigation of the oasis. To the left, we have the entrance to the art rooms and to the right, the multipurpose room and restaurant. The patio’s back leads to the meeting hall, where the visitors get together in groups with the specialized guide to begin the bodega’s visit. This hall connects with the small auditorium (where films about wine-making and cultural subjects are presented), the administration, the sales room, and the restaurant. From there, we find and exceptional view of the mountain and the bodega, reached by foot through a small didactic vineyard, with the different Salentein vine’s collection and a sample of the trickle irrigation system, which teaches, live and direct, the environmental transformation that changes the desert into an oasis, typical of Mendoza..