Winery Notes | 2.19.10

Before meeting with Mr. Ron Barrett of Kinkead Ridge, my dad and I got together to come up with some ideas as far as what he wants for his winery:

Budget: because this design is for the most part hypothetical for the time being, we decided not to come up specific numbers for a budget, but to just design reasonably. If the design is built later on, we may have to value engineer a bit.

Volume: start with 5 acres of vines--about 3250 vines

[looking at an average yield per vine of 9 lbs. of grapes, giving us 3/4 gallon of wine per vine = 2437 gallons]

at 5 bottles/gallon, we end up with approximately 12,000 bottles (around 1000 cases of wine)

Growth Capacity: Design for 3000-3500 gallons. Growth up to 6000 gallons.

Business Strategy: Wholesale vs. Retail? Mostly retail--include tasting room/retail area for guests to taste and purchase wine; parking, 2 ADA restrooms, possibly a kitchen?

Philosophy: High quality wine in limited quantities, Mostly reds, some whites

Initial Program

After reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running A Winery, I was able to use their sample floor plan to come up with a preliminary program, going something like this:

PUBLIC

Visitor Center

Tasting Room

Restrooms

SUPPORT

Office Space

Kitchen

Dry Storage

Bonded Warehouse (bottle storage)

Tax Paid Room

PRODUCTION

Crush Pad

Fermentation Tank Storage

Barrel Storage

Laboratory

Bottling Line

As a newcomer to the winemaking process, I was unsure of what some of these areas were used for, so here's a little description of each area.. (or at least the ones that may need some clearing up. Not going to describe what goes on in a kitchen, sorry)

Crush Pad: where the grapes are brought in from the vineyard, or delivered from elsewhere, on trucks or tractors, and put through a crusher and destemmer, then a grape press. So this is where the grapes are turned into juice. Usually outside on a sloped concrete surface with storm drains and some sort of roof structure to protect the grapes from precipitation.

Fermentation Tank Storage: Inside, where the grape juice goes after being crushed and pressed. The number and size of tanks depends on the size of the winery; they come in several sizes, such as 500 gallon and 1000 gallon. In this area, temperature control is CRUCIAL. Access to water is essential for cleaning tanks and floors. Low humidity in this area.

Barrel Storage: After being fermented the wine is pumped into either oak barrels, stainless steel tanks, or some other kind of container where the wine is allowed to age before being bottled. Like the fermentation tanks, these containers come in all sizes as well (at the smaller wineries I visited, the barrels were around 50-60 gallons). Ceilings at 10'-14' on average to allow for barrels to be stacked 3-4 high. Temperature control remains CRUCIAL in this area. Higher humidity in barrel storage (around 50% relative humidity). Storage here for equipment.

Laboratory: Where the winemaker tests the wines for pH levels, brix etc. Takes samples from the barrels while the wines are aging. Similar to a kitchen--lots of counter space, microwave, fridge, burners, computer

Bottling Line: After the wine ages, it is put through a bottling line; some smaller wineries hire out for bottling rather than purchasing their own bottling equipment (I will be including a bottling line in my design, even if this is a smaller scale winery).

Bonded Warehouse: Where the bottles are stored before being sent out to wine shops, grocery stores, the tasting room, etc. As long as the bottles are in this area, they are not being taxed. Once they leave, they are taxable. I haven't quite grasped this whole idea yet.. the regulations regarding the production and sale of wine are quite extensive. (Here is the link to the government website which outlines all the information on wine taxes, labeling, permits, etc. http://www.ttb.gov/wine/index.shtml)

Tax Paid Room: Where the wine goes between the Bonded Warehouse and the Tasting Room. This is the area where the wine becomes taxable.

Tasting Room: Area where visitors can sample wines, buy wines, possible even used as a catering area depending on the winery (for the purposes of this design, the tasting room with be for tasting and purchasing wine, not a restaurant)

"Client" Meeting

Notes from a meeting with my dad (the client..) from way back in January..

Began by googling "winery design"

Came across several HUGE wineries designed by large architecture firms such as BAR Architects in San Francisco, Hall & Bartley Architects, and Boxwood Architecture. These wineries, while impressive, were not exactly the precedents we were searching for. These wineries make far more wine than the small scale winery I am designing, and the companies have quite a bit more money to toss into these buildings than we do.

A general google search for small scale winery design produced few results, with nothing very helpful.

So we continued into what my father wanted as far as his winery:

-inviting from a distance

-high ceilings

-concrete floors (sloped to storm drains)

-Outside crush pad with roof

-Office space

-Access to water, electricity

-Ample storage space

-Separate barrel rooms for reds and whites

-Tasting room

Midterm..

I'm a little late getting this blog set up. It's purpose is to follow my progress in designing a winery for my father on his land out in Brown County of Southwestern Ohio. Apparently he has a great spot for grape-growing! Anyway, I'm an architecture student and thought this would make for an interesting study project. Plus, it's a fun and helpful project for my dad as well. We've been trying to meet weekly to discuss where to go next (although, weekly doesn't always happen due to his full time job and my part-time job..).
This project has been going on for about 2 months now, so to bring everyone up to date..

January--lots of reading and research about vineyards, growing grapes, wineries, equipment etc.
From Vines to Wines: The Complete Guide to Growing Grapes and Making Your Own Wine by Jeff Cox
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Winery by Thomas Pellechia
Winery Design edited by teNeues
February--Beginnings of design [bubble diagrams, adjacencies, intial floor plans, napkin
sketches]
Winery Weekend [February 19th-20th]
2.19: Visited Kinkead Ridge Winery in Ripley, OH (also in Brown Cnty). Spoke with owner and
wine maker Ron Barrett about small winery design (and much more about wineries in
general..more on that later)
Also ventured over to Meranda-Nixon Winery in Ripley to check out their setup and speak
with owner and wine maker Seth Meranda and his wife Tina.
2.20: Visited Elk Creek Winery in Owenton, KY and toured the winery--stark contrast from either
of the wineries in OH..a much larger operation.
Traveled a little further south past Lexington, KY to visit Jean Farris Winery and Bistro. We
were able to take a peak at their winery operation in the building behind the restaurant and
meet the winemaker Ben O'Daniel (who also makes wine at Elk Creek), and the owner,
Jean Farris.
Since the winery visits, I've been going over pages of notes from Mr. Barrett and attempting to
organize and apply all the information he and the other winery owners supplied me with so
willingly.

So there's a brief overview of the project thusfar..now back to the sketchbook!