Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/66144
WINEMAKING TECHNICAL REVIEW Designing the Dynamic Council, LEED provides guidance and certification for the design, construction and operation of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly buildings. Owners Craig and Kathryn Hall began planning their self-financed state-of- the-art St. Helena facility in 2003. Lail Design Group of St. Helena and Gehry Partners LLP of Los Angeles were tapped as architects. By 2005, designs were under way, and the project broke ground July 2007. By August of 2008, the winery was occupied and fully operational, right in time for crush. To date, the fermentation building is approximately 20,000 square feet, and the barrel chais is approximately 25,000 square feet. H When discussing the building process of this workhorse winery, Mike Reyn- olds, president and general manager of Hall Wines, said, "It happened very fast. Especially considering the scale of what we built." Reynolds, a key figure in planning Hall's St. Helena facility, is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, who worked for Schramsberg and Kendall- Jackson before joining Hall Wines in 2002 as employee No. 1—winemaker, vineyard manager and everything in between. Forward thinking "When you go out and buy a computer it becomes obsolete quickly, so it's best to start as high tech as possible," Reynolds said, citing a parallel to winery equipment. When designing Hall's St. Helena facility, Reynolds took a trip to Bordeaux in spring 2003 to taste wines and seek inspiration. View video in the Wines & Vines Digital Edition. Winemaker Steven Leveque discusses grapegrowing and winemaking at Hall Wines. 40 Wines & Vines AUGUsT 201 1 LEED consulting firm Questions & Solutions Engineering Inc. helped Hall Wines' St. Helena, Calif., facility attain its sustainability goals and earn LEED gold status. "During the trip, we were there to ex- perience the great wines of Bordeaux and to see what new, state-of-the-art technolo- gy was in use." What Reynolds found was a mixed bag. Wineries such as Château Latour featured brand new technology, while many had more dated equipment. What really struck Reynolds was his visit to Château Lynch-Bages in Pauillac. Reynolds toured the stately old winery, which dated back to the early 1900s, before touring the new winery facility, which he found to be the equivalent of wineries built in Napa during the 1970s. It was built in 1978, and all the equip- ment was obviously dated. This proved to be one of the most cautionary tales of his exploratory Bordeaux expedition. Further driving home the point of building smartly with an eye toward the future, Reynolds said, "You only get to do things one time. You need to build it state of the art and flexible. You can't antici- pate what the new techniques are going all Wines' St. Helena facility was California's first Leader- ship in Energy and Environ- mental Design (LEED) gold- certified winery. Developed by the U.S. Green Building CALIFORNIA Mendocino Healdsburg Napa Pacific Ocean San Hall Francisco NV Winery CALIFORNIA OR Hall Wines' adaptive, high-tech facility anticipates the future By Kerry Kirkham ALL PHOTOGRAPHY: KERRY KIRKHAM