Energy Efficient Winery

Anyone who has visited our vineyard and winery will testify to its beauty.  The location is stunning and the winery wonderfully modern yet in tune with its surroundings.  We’re lucky to have such a place to work.  This custom-built winery was thoughtfully designed to make the most of some simple efficient concepts and I’m delighted that we took the time back in 2003 to do things this way – it makes sense!  The main efficiencies come from making the most of our site. Wine moves throughout its journey using gravity instead of pumps wherever possible.  By locating our cellar underground we also manage to maintain a more consistent environment for our aging wines which reduces the need for artificially controlling the temperature.  Our sunny location and commitment to solar power also ensures that the energy we do need is generated in a safe and clean fashion. Natural lighting, night air ventilation and high thermal mass of the structure help to maintain an efficient building that is attractive yet built upon common sense and environmentally sound foundations.  For a great overview on the building visit www.inhabitat.com

However, there’s always more we can do and harvest seems to have a habit of highlighting the fact that we can’t sit back and relax.  (Speaking of harvest - we just picked some Sauvignon blanc….more on that later.)  As our vineyards mature and we crush more fruit our power demands increase – we need to look at further reducing our power usage or generating more energy through solar.  Recently, frustrated by the poor reliability of electric vehicles our vineyard crew demanded bicycles to get around the ranch.  Our company fleet of 17 mountain bikes (each member of the team has his own carefully sized bike) is a sight to behold. We all love them: they keep us fit, they don’t pollute but they do make everyone smile.  Perfect.