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MANA GEMENT Backen, Gillam & Kroeger Architects, says, "Visitors could drive up from San Francisco, visit Ram's Gate and return home feeling they'd had a full wine country experience." The winery is much more oriented toward visitors than production. "It's based on drama," Backen says. While designed to produce quality wine, the production area is open to the visitors center, and the large upright oval tanks grab the visitor's eye. Backen, who has designed about 30 wineries including Harlan Estate, is best known for his designs based on the vernacular barns of wine country, and the tasting room at Ram's Gate reflects that style with high ceilings, extensive use of recycled wood and open spaces inside and out. Not all of Backen's designs fit that mold, however. The new Paul Hobbs Winery, for example, has an industrial edge and employs poured concrete and corrugated metal. These materials are becoming more and more popular for wineries, and modern winery production areas tend to be devoid of wood due to concerns about TCA contamination; much of what looks like wood in wineries is actually concrete and other materials designed to emulate wood. Other recent examples of contemporary, visitor-oriented design include Ovid Vineyards high above Napa Valley, which Backen designed. Its visitors center is surrounded by glass to take advantage of the dramatic view while the winemaking takes place in the cellar. At Dana Estates, Backen turned the ruins of an old winery into a courtyard that enhances the visitor experience. Charles Krug is turning its restored Carriage House into a visitors center complete with a deli and possible museum, and even the venerable Louis M. Martini Winery is turning a large production building into an enhanced visitors center. By contrast, at Screaming Eagle, which does not welcome visitors, little is visible above ground. More comfortable and inviting visitors space Another architect who's worked on visitor-oriented wineries is Douglas Thornley of Gould Evans Baum Thornley Archi- tects in San Francisco. He has been involved in many Califor- nia winery designs since 1998, including the new Cuvaison site with its dramatic tasting room in Carneros, the visitors center at the old Cuvaison site in Calistoga and Lynmar Es- tate in Sebastopol. "Our clients are very interested in increasing direct-to- consumer sales and creating brand loyalty," Thornley says. "They want visitors to return and recommend that their friends visit." The Southern Oregon Wine Institute will provide a new home for Umpqua Community College's new viticulture and enology program. One move to this end is to make tasting rooms more comfortable, as at Ram's Gate. "We see an increase in indoor- outdoor space, which visitors love and also increases visitor space without adding more buildings," he says Thornley points out, "No one wants a big, empty space, but smaller spaces that can be opened and combined as needed." At Cuvaison, for example, a space normally used for VIP and club events can be opened if needed for big crowds on weekends. He also sees a move from "belly up to the bar" tasting to comfortable seating options. This creates lounges where visitors can meet and share the experience, encouraging them to return. Thornley also notes the move to adding more educational content, as Raymond Vineyards has done with a special classroom and program designed by Karen MacNeil, head of the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. Raymond Vineyards also has added an opulent private room for club members, a dramatic "Crystal Room" for tastings and even a lab-like classroom for blending exercises. Outside, it has established a comprehensive garden demonstrating grapegrowing with a focus on Biodynamic farming practices. Highlights • Wineries today are investing in enhancing the visitor experience rather than increasing production. • Renovating old wineries is a common trend, and a Napa-based construction company says metal has become the most popular building material for wineries. • While caves reduce energy costs, many still utilize heating and cooling mechanisms. Thornley notes that wineries also are adding commercial kitchens to beef up their wine and food pairings. "All our designs but one have a commercial kitchen." He also sees a demand for "super cave rooms" to use for events. It's not just California wineries that are seeking more attention from visitors. Laurence Ferar of Laurence Ferar & Associates in Portland, Ore., connects the visits with retail sales. "In Oregon, as elsewhere, winery owners are recognizing the benefits of direct sales. Many of our long-term clients who once swore they'd be open to the public 'over my dead body' are now asking us to design tasting rooms." Because of the weak economy, almost all of Ferar's clients are also requesting a master plan for phased construction, rather than completing projects all at once—and they often start with the part that brings in dollars. One of Ferar's clients, Alexana Winery of Dundee, Ore., just opened a tasting room as the Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2012 65