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WINEMAKING Arkenstone's subterranean winery adds flexible functionality By William A. Fuchs More Than a Cave The second-level mezzanine overlooks the tanks in the fermentation hall at Arkenstone Vineyards. Beyond is the second-year barrel storage cave. the cave-building industry is evolving in terms of building standards and cave functionality. The 26,000-square-foot cave at Arkenstone Vineyards integrates three separate barrel-storage rooms, two fermentation halls and a variety of sup- port functions often neglected in winery caves. The facilities operate on two levels beneath a crush pad that feeds fruit and must to tanks by gravity. Ron and Susan Krausz, the owners of Arkenstone, first laid eyes on their Howell Mountain site in 1988. Though the cou- ple had no intention of planting vineyards and building a winery then, both come from families with farming histories; so when a good friend who'd grown up in a Napa Valley wine family encouraged them and arranged for a vineyard expert to evaluate the property, the dream of H 44 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2011 igh on Howell Mountain, a new and complex under- ground winery demonstrates the innovations possible in today's winery cave con- struction. Unknown to most, planting winegrapes and making wine took hold. The expert confirmed what the couple instinctively felt during the seven years they'd owned the property: There was something special about this moun- tain site. The Krauszes are committed to excel- lence in the vineyard and winery as well as being respectful stewards of their land. While early winery design efforts contemplated conventional construc- tion, they also included significant use of underground facilities. When Magorian Mine Services joined the project in 2004, the firm made the case for replacing much of what would have been built above ground with caves. A key compo- nent of the owner's original building de- sign was to process grapes at the surface level and drop them into tanks in a base- ment below. After early design meetings with Magorian, the basement became a cave (at a deeper level) beneath the crush pad and was large enough to accommo- date a fermentation hall, maintaining the goal of moving fruit to tanks by gravity. Highlights • A new 26,000-square-foot cave in Napa Valley is optimized for Arkenstone's winemaking and custom crush opera- tions. • The facilities operate on two levels beneath a crush pad feeding fruit and must to tanks by gravity. • The cave has six separate temperature- humidity zones, computer-controlled fermentation tanks and numerous other innovations. The cave design process was an evolu- tion that began in the fall of 2004 and continued through cave construction, which began in spring 2005 and was finished in August 2008. BRiANA MARie ClARk-FORGie