BENTON CITY, Wash. -- It's not every day that a person gets a mountain for their birthday.

But Friday afternoon, Piero Antinori celebrated his 67th year on Earth atop Red Mountain. The Italian shoveled up a few bursts of powdery sand where his new Col Solare facility will be built.

It's a case of Florence meeting Benton City.

Antinori is the patriarch of one of the leading Italian wine families, and some argue one of the leading winemakers and wine company owners in the world. Officials from his company say the new $6 million winery -- a partnership between the famous Italian wine family and Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, the largest wine producer in Washington -- will be built in time for the 2006 crush.

The structure's design only is about two weeks old, but plans call for a 17,000- to 22,000-square-foot winery with a subterranean barrel room, fermenters, a grand courtyard, a fortresslike rock wall reminiscent of ancient walled cities of Tuscany and a soaring bell tower.

Joe Chauncey, principal of the Seattle architecture firm Boxwood, said the structure is intended to marry Italy's romance with Northwest style. The walls will be formed of basalt, and the vineyards will radiate from the building something like the rays of the sun.

The event was private, and only a handful of top winemakers and grape growers from Red Mountain were invited to Hedges Winery for the lunch and groundbreaking. There the group ate a carefully orchestrated meal, and welcomed Antinori and his daughter Albiera Antinori to their Mid-Columbia hill. Chateau Ste. Michelle Dr. Loosen 2001 Eroica Riesling Single Berry Select, an amber-colored dessert wine at $200 a half bottle, was poured for desert, and nut tarts with wafer-thin sliced peaches were served to the tune of Happy Birthday.

After lunch, Antinori stepped out of a polished truck a bit dusty from the bumpy ride up the hill from Hedges to the Col Solare building site at 1,000 feet elevation.

"I've always been in love with this place," Piero said in Italian.

"It has a great future," he said.

Antinori said he chose Red Mountain rather than another Washington appellation for the winery for specific reasons.

Red Mountain produces wonderful grapes, he said.

He's been watching it for about 10 years, influenced by noted Napa winemaker Andre Tchelistcheff, who consulted for Antinori and Chateau Ste. Michelle before dying in 1994.

The region is a "piccola zona," or a small grape growing area, Antinori said.

In a smaller area, it's easier to make an entire region become known for quality and get winemakers in the appellation agree on how the area should be managed, he said.

Italy is well-known for winemaking, and the Antinoris have been making vino for 26 generations, since 1385.

Still, Antinori said he pays close attention to New World winemakers.

"It's stimulating us to always be better," he said.

Antinori is a busy guy. He jumped on a plane to Napa after the event. He supervises wine production in Italy, Malta, Hungary, Chile, Napa Valley and more recently, Washington. And it doesn't weigh him down, he said.

He said the work of wine is veremente bello, or truly wonderful. Non mi stanco mai, or I'll never get tired.

Renzo Cotarella, head winemaker for Antinori, wasn't present Friday but will continue to visit Washington and oversee the production of Col Solare. The 2001 vintage retails for about $40 and is a meritage blend, meaning a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah and malbec grapes. Col Solare's first vintage was 1995.

Ted Baseler, president and chief executive of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, also churned up a bit of dust Friday with the custom-painted shovel bearing Col Solare's name and a small American flag bandana tied to the handle.

"It's adjacent to some very high performing vineyards, and we also like the vista," he said. "With this scope, you don't think about how it's going be now, but how it's going to be in 70 years."

Scott Williams, co-owner of Kiona Vineyards Winery, whose family was the first to plant grapes on Red Mountain and who sold about 40 acres for the new Col Solare winery, said he was excited to see Antinori come to the Mid-Columbia.

Williams said Antinori's presence serves as positive reinforcement for what the Williams family has been working toward since the early 1970s.

"The fact that someone from a 15th century winemaking family thinks the same thing means that you've made it."

Williams said he hopes the political clout of the Antinoris and Ste. Michelle will push languishing water right transfers ahead at a faster pace.

And he said he's not too worried about the competition to their established Kiona family winery.

"They have to drive right by us to get there," he said, smiling.