December 3, 2025 (Coimbra, Portugal) – The Portuguese company WiseShape announces the launch of the world’s first wine amphora made of high-performance concrete, inspired by the classical Greek and Roman design.
The new and innovative high-quality wine fermentation and storage tank developed by WiseShape has a capacity of 500 liters and measures 1.59 meters in height.
“The success of WiseShape’s innovative wine tanks inspired me to design an amphora that would bring the fermentation and storage of wine from antiquity into a contemporary formulation,” explains Tatiana Sá Marques, founder and CEO of WiseShape.
“The WiseAmphora is also a design object that seeks to honour Portugal’s long tradition of winemaking and its outstanding contemporary architecture.”
From Antiquity to Innovation
Amphorae are a very ancient way of storing wine and water. The earliest examples found by archaeologists date from 6000 to 4800 B.C.
Until today, most vats of this type used for wine storage were made of clay, as are the so-called qvevri, a similar version of amphorae.
However, until now, no producer had used the original and fundamental shapes of Greek and Roman amphorae combined with high-performance concrete.
The few existing examples introduce alterations to the ancient forms and do not adopt WiseShape’s single-core concrete formulation.
“The deeply Greco-Roman form we have found is unique in this type of amphora. And what is curious is that it works beautifully with our high-performance concrete,” adds Sá Marques.
Simpler and More Complex
The most complex exercise was precisely to maintain the classical lines while meeting the technical requirements of this type of tank.
The truth is that the WiseAmphora minimises the use of accessories or design elements that would distort the shape of the ancient and original amphora.
“The greatest challenge of the WiseAmphora was to find a fine balance between design and functionality. This challenge demanded more than three years of research and development, between the initial sketch and the final prototype.”
The WiseAmphora weighs around 1000 kilograms and has hidden handles for easy transportation and movement.
There is also an optional metal stand developed to allow 360-degree rotation of the amphora, enabling it to integrate intelligently and practically into cellars or wine tourism spaces.
“We used internally developed technology to achieve the final shapes, allowing them to fit perfectly into the mould we had previously sculpted.”
