From Egyptians and Phoenicians to our times, the process of making wine and wineries have gone a long way. Primitive wineries were caves found or made in the compact solid ground or special rooms constructed with high inertia materials such as rocks or earth blocks. These type of construction, with design variations, lasted until industrial revolution when new materials, mainly steel and glass sheets, were available for construction promoting bigger, faster and cheaper possibilities for industrial buildings. These changes affected interior temperatures and, as a consequence, mechanical energy consuming systems like serpentine pipes inside tanks controlled temperature during the fermentation process and air conditioned equipment were installed on oak breeding barrels rooms began to be mandatory in wineries. These last decades innovation in wineries materiality went from different types of metal sheets to petrol derived materials such as polymers. As thinner and lighter the building skin, the more important the amount of envelope in contact with the compact solid ground. This paper presents results in envelope characterization by energy flux exchanges and compactness of different constructive solutions for wineries responding to two different concepts: the high tech image (while traditional envelope still host wine production) and new skins (new industrial designs). The three main production stages (fermentation, breeding and storage) are discussed in the light of passive architecture.