Designing a Commercial Production Winery with Expansion in Mind

"Designing a Commercial Production Winery with Expansion in Mind", is the mindset that we are in right now. Our morning conversations include projections of harvest from 2021 to 2023 with the idea of outfitting a small winery for these needs. I found this article online from The Grapevine Magazine. This article covered the basic construction elements of a startup production winery, while considering the most efficient means of expansion. This is right up our alley.
Size / Scale / Layout

• minimum suggested scale for a commercial winery is in the 1000 – 2000 case size
• for a 1500 case winery, plan on a minimum building size of 3,500 ft² with roughly 1/3 space devoted to tasting room and 2/3 to production/finished case storage
• a porch, office, event space (to be discussed), kitchen, etc can also be added
• a separate barrel room and warehouse room for stored cased goods is the most common space obstacle that beginning wineries face
• keep in mind how future building additions will tie together
• keep in mind elements such as roof line, utilities, placement of windows and doorways, and wastewater drains

Electrical Power

• ideally 400-amps of electrical service will provide more than ample power for your startup winery with significant room to grow into while keeping expansion in mind
• for one or two pieces of equipment that require 480 volts it may be less expensive to have a transformer bump-up voltage to 480 volts for those two pieces of equipment than having 480 volts delivered to the building and having to step-down the voltage for all remaining piece of equipment on 220 volts
• if you have access to 3 phase (common near urban / industrial parks/ large scale farms), recommend tying into that upfront
• most large pieces of equipment utilizing a frequency drive or motors at greater than 5 hp demand 3 phase electrical power
• 3 phase power is needed for several key pieces of equipment (press, destemmer/crusher, tank mixer, monoblock bottling line, etc.), purchasing a phase converter may be all that is needed

Water Supply / Wastewater / Drainage

• an on-demand hot water heater capable of hitting 180-185°F is important for sanitation purposes with a minimum recommended flow rate of 1 – 2 gallon per minute, to maintain 180°F for prolonged periods of time
• the on-demand water unit can have dual functionality as it can be used to sanitize winery production equipment on the production end and can also be used to sanitize stemware on the tasting room
• in the production area, figure on having 1-2 water access points (hose bibs) per wall
• minimizing the distance between heat source and end-point should be considered in order to increase efficiency and decrease heat loss
• lateral water lines that carry water from the source to its endpoint should be at least ¾” in diameter, as opposed to the standard ½”
• for waste water management, the four most common options to choose from include:
  (1) surface spreading
  (2) aerobic biological treatment
  (3) settling holding tank / septic tank
  (4) municipal sewage system (easiest if available near you)
• the placement of waste water management systems should be outside the zone of potential expansion
• location of drain systems should take into account future expansion possibilities

Building Ceiling Height

• the ceiling height should ideally be at least 16’ high
• this allows stacking 2 pallets of empty glass high during bottling (note a minimum 14’ is needed for filled bottles, assuming cases are stacked 5 high/each pallet and 2 pallets per column)
• as production volume increases size, so will your tank size – having tall ceilings allows for larger tanks

Misc. Items that Should be Considered

• Outdoor Crush Pad: At the starting scale of 1500 cases, a good size crush pad is 30’ x 30’ but could easily be 50’ x 50’ off of the production-end
  the concrete that is poured should be able to withstand the weight of a forklift, pallets of bottles, tanks, etc. (typically 5” or greater in thickness)
  may need to install a specific wastewater containment system on the crush pad
• Garage Door: the winery’s overhead garage door to the will need to accomodate the largest piece of equipment that will enter the building
• Loading Dock: although not an absolute necessity in the beginning, a loading dock with a docking plate (height adjustable) makes loading and off-loading logistics much simpler that taking the forklift to the back of semi and using a palette jack to move items to the back of the truck for pickup
• Production Floor Sealant: consider using an Epoxy Resin and Urethane protective coating to withstand a battery of abuse from constant foot traffic, heavy loads (forklift / pallet jack), and should be chemical and water resistant

Event Space / Tasting Bar

• space to hold events, also must include the appropriate support amenities: prep. kitchen, restrooms, storage space, etc
• make sure your plans have been submitted to ALL local and state authorities (Commercial Building inspector) before starting construction
• for the Tasting Room have a dedicated and segregated checkout area that is separate to the tasting bar. Ideally, this checkout area would be located right next to the exit of your building

References:
1. Piero Spada LLC, "Designing a Commercial Production Winery with Expansion in Mind", The Grapevine Magazine, April 10, 2019.

Racking Our Red Wines into Oak Barrels

Yesterday was a first for us. We went to Jonathan Edwards Winery where Jonathan Edwards and his crew had prepared two oak barrels for us so that our reds, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc could age in oak! Jonathan chose two of his 2018 Nadalie Elite oak barrels to store our wines for aging.
The paper chromatography taken of our wines on February 17 showed that the malolactic fermentation was over. This is a good time to transfer the finished wine from the stainless steel barrel that fermentation was done in, into oak. Jonathan Edwards had all of the equipment in place when we went over and the transfer went without a problem. We put in 35 ppm of sulfur dioxide (in the form of potassium metabisulfite). We ended up with a full barrel plus a full 5 gallon keg to use for topping up the barrel as the wines age.

We can't wait to taste our wines after barrel aging! Thank you, Jonathan!

4 Must Haves for a New Winery Construction---The Floor

Recently, we have been immersing ourselves in small winery construction and I came upon this site WINERY BUILDING DESIGN: 4 MUST HAVES FOR EVERY NEW CONSTRUCTION PROJECT, it is a posting by SLOTDRAIN, a company founded on drainage systems solutions, which I found to be very helpful.
Wineries have specific needs that need to be met by the architectural design of the building. Here are some winery building must-haves to keep in mind when designing the perfect winery:¹

• A well thought layout
• Use quality insulation
• Choose the right flooring
• Install a slot drain system

Coincidentally, I was reading the December 2020 issue of Wine Business Monthly and came across an article called Cellar Floor Sanitation. Little did I know before reading the article that the cellar floor is a very important consideration in new winery construction. Here is what I learned:²

• the cellar floor is a tool, a critical piece of process equipment
• the cellar floor is subject to constant use and abuse all year long
• the cellar floor, like any other tool in the toolkit requires ongoing maintenance and needs to be clean

Sources of the most contamination in a winery include floor drains, floors and areas around bung holes. The worst time is during crush when winemakers can easily lose control of their daily cleaning protocol. Everything from outside dirt, foot and forklift traffic, crushed fruit and spilled wine will hit the floor.
After reading that, I envisioned that we would be wearing booties over our shoes to prevent dirt from entering our winery, trying to turn our winery into a cleanroom. I know, it's really not feasible. So, the answer to that is to have a floor that makes daily cleaning protocols not an onerous task.
The article went on to explain that no winery floor should be made of concrete, bad, a no-no. However, concrete could be resurfaced with a long-lasting urethane polymer.
Polymer floors provide:

• incredible durability
• almost bullet-proof impact resistance
• anti-slip footing
• OSHA/FDA approval

They can withstand all types of cleaning protocols including steaming, high pressure rinsing as well as heavy scrubbing. Another recommendation was to choose lighter floor colors to reflect light so that it is easier to maintain cleanliness in dark areas or under tanks.
We will certainly keep this in mind as we plan our winery layout.
References:
1. SLOTDRAIN, WINERY BUILDING DESIGN: 4 MUST HAVES FOR EVERY NEW CONSTRUCTION PROJECT.
2. Bill Pregler, Cellar Floor Sanitation, Wine Business Monthly, December 2020, pg. 40-45.

February 18 was National Drink Wine Day

I learned a day after the fact that February 18 was National Drink Wine Day. It was also the day that the northeast was going to get the storm that devastated the south. We were bracing for being stuck in our home (well, we already are kind of stuck in our home a la global pandemic) for a few days. I decided that I would make Ina Garten's Beef Bourguignon.
I already had many of the ingredients on hand and purchased a nice cut of beef chuck roast during my weekly grocery visit so I thought I was prepared when I read the recipe again and it called for an entire bottle of red wine such as a Cote du Rhone or Pinot Noir!
My husband has a cellar but he wasn't parting with any of his wines to make this dish so on Thursday morning before the ETA of the snowstorm, I went to our local package store, Cask 'n Keg to search for a "cheap" bottle recommended by my husband.
I couldn't find the bottle he recommended but I did end up with 3 bottles of wine that I thought would suffice, meeting the criteria of "cheap". When I went to check out, I was telling the young man about my quandry and he said, "You're making beef bourguignon? My friend who also works here always uses this wine to make his beef bourguignon." And, he lead me to this:

The price was in my wheelhouse---$12.99 and it was a Kermit Lynch selected wine and a Cote du Rhone! I added it to my purchases. When I went home, I was met with my husband's approval, although he said he was about to send out a search and rescue team since I was taking so long.
Here is what the beef bourguignon looked like:

I did modify Ina's recipe a bit: No bacon (although I did use a huge dollop of bacon grease), no cognac, no frozen onions, added potatoes and forgot the parsley.
Most importantly, however, we did manage to consume an entire bottle of Cote du Rhone in the beef bourguignon, as well as a half a bottle of La Crema Pinot Noir on National Drink Wine Day.