Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/122527
TECHNICAL REVIEW WINEMAKING A 'Micro-Winery Gone Haywire' Rhys Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains is naturally high tech By Laurie Daniel Highlights In the fermentation room, Pinot Noir is fermented in 1-ton custom-built stainless tanks and 1-ton oak tanks. W hen winemaker Jeff Brinkman started working in 2006 for Rhys Vineyards in California's Santa Cruz Mountains, the wines were being made in owner Kevin Harvey's garage in Portola Valley, Calif. The next year, production was moved to some rented space, then later to a large warehouse. The warehouse had plenty of room, but there were drawbacks, chiefly a lack of proper insulation. Clearly, a purpose-built winery was in order. Harvey, a software entrepreneur and one of the founders of Benchmark Capital, certainly had the financial resources. His successes in the tech world allowed him to spare no expense when it came to building a 30,000-square-foot winery tunneled into a hillside along Skyline Boulevard, the road that follows the ridgeline of the coastal hills south of San Francisco. Production moved into the new winery for the 2010 harvest. 48 W IN E S & V I NE S M AY 2 0 1 3 • hys Vineyards produces 5,000 cases R per year in a 30,000-square-foot cave tunneled into the Santa Cruz Mountains. Brinkman "The vineyards are spent nearly a necessity. The win• he design of the cave and its three T three years ery is a luxury." tunnels allows a natural flow of working with Rhys produces winemaking work. Peterson Arabout 5,000 cases chitects to get of Pinot Noir (the • he winery's technological features T everything just variety for which increase efficiency and allow winemaker right. The cave, the winery is best built by Nordby known), ChardonJeff Brinkman to track the wines so Wine Caves, is nay and Syrah, all closely that he's not tempted to take essentially three from estate vineprophylactic measures. tunnels with yards, most of which some connectare in the Santa Cruz ing corridors. Brinkman wanted a natural Mountains. Grapes, which are handpicked flow from one area to the next, and he at night into 500-pound MacroBins, are wanted enough space so that his small delivered to the cave entrance, to an area crew wouldn't be required to move things known as the bin cave. The area can be around constantly. He describes it as a curtained off, and the temperature cooled "micro-winery gone haywire." to 40ºF to chill the fruit. (Even though Building a winery in a cave—especially the winery is underground, the ventilation in a seismically active area—obviously system has cooling capability.) isn't cheap. But Rhys owner Harvey deFrom the bin cave, the tunnel leads to clined to say how much it all cost. "Hah," the crush pad, where the fruit goes onto he replied when asked about the price tag. a sorting table by P&L Specialties with a "No. That's embarrassing." He added: vibratory hopper. The sorting table feeds