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November 2016 WINES&VINES 77 first family member to own the property had been a caretaker for a large ranch and had received the land through an allocation from the owners. A starting point An old barn was part of the reason why Davis purchased the land. "I fell in love with the barn when I was first on the property; this was one of the things that drew me here," he said. The barn had been built in 1916 and was just barely standing. "We restored the barn. We worked with Howard Bracken, our architect, and he worked with a couple of historians to make sure that we were within the guidelines and we literally cross braced it, lifted it and moved it 150 feet, took out the foundation and put in a new foundation," Davis said. Finished in August 2014, the restored barn was the first major project completed at the estate and served as a temporary tasting room when construction began on the new winery, tasting room and cave complex. Today the barn space is used for club mem- bers and features several sitting areas as well as an upstairs loft and outside patio. At the center of the barn is a huge fireplace that resembles a 19 th century boiler. "Where the fireplace is now was their game-curing room. They'd shoot deer, they'd shoot bear, and a lot of that was their protein for the year, and so it had a perfume that wasn't conducive to wine tasting," Davis says. "So when we put it all back together Howard said, 'Let's put a fireplace there.'" The building has a few other pieces of origi- nal equipment such as saddle collars and bridle hooks from when it was a working barn as well as two meticulously restored tractors and a 100-year-old player piano rebuilt with a digital library of songs that Davis can control with his smartphone. "I like to merge old school, old technology and old form and functionality with new modern technology," he says. Building on a theme The combination of old and new is a theme that's repeated throughout the winery. The restored barn is on the southern side of the winery, and an office building is to the north. "One of my objectives was symmetry and bal- ance. If you look at the 1916 barn footprint KEY POINTS Top-of-the-line winemaking equipment can handle any variety or style. Caves offer barrel storage and an unusual climate-controlled private tasting area. The Howard Backen-designed winery reflects the property's history as a working farm. CODY GEHRET PHOTOGRAPHY Mike Davis (top) founded the winery with his wife, Sandy Davis. All of the crush pad equipment (center) came from Bucher Vaslin and includes the company's latest destemmer and optical sorter. Sorted and de- stemmed fruit is transferred to fermentation tanks (bottom) via this custom piece of equipment that features a hopper and elevated conveyor. WINEMAKING