Architecture · Caves
Our 17,000 square foot facility was designed by Jon Lail, principal of Lail Design Group, LLC, to reflect the marriage of Chuck’s tech background, and Philippe’s Old World winemaking philosophy.
Completed in 2002, the winery is built of stone materials and terraced with landscape plantings to fit beautifully within the natural landscape of the vineyards that surround it. The winery design is gravity flow in nature, increasing the quality of the wine produced and substantially reducing undesirable aeration by pumps and winemaking machinery.
Designed to make the least environmental impact, the facility generates its own electricity using microturbines. As a byproduct, this system “co-generates” all the winery’s hot and chilled water and cools the winery’s 13,000 square feet of caves.
A suberb blend of function and aesthetics, a walk through the Vineyard 29 caves may be as much a soothing experience for humans as it is for the wines. 13,000 square feet of man-made and immaculately maintained cave space serves not only as a dramatic showplace for our wines, but provides precise regulation of temperature and humidity for aging each barrel and bottle. The extreme care taken to keep our caves in optimal condition, in terms of temperature regulation, and overall cleanliness, allows us to ensure the lowest risk of exposure to elements which might be harmful to our developing wines.
The cave configuration consists of three distinct tunnels reaching 125 feet back into the Mayacamas Mountains. Another 25 feet further into the mountainside from the center tunnel is our Wine Library, 75 feet directly below the sauvignon blanc vineyard. Humidity is maintained at 70% by air condensers tucked away in a corner of the north tunnel.