Wine Caves in the Napa Valley

Wine Caves

The use of caves for storing and aging wine goes back, at least, to the Romans. In the 1800s, Chinese laborers using picks and shovels built the first Napa Valley wine caves. Jacob Schram constructed tunnels (at today's Schramsberg Vineyards) beginning in 1870 and the Beringer brothers began to do the same at their winery (now Beringer Vineyards) soon afterwards.

Today nearly 100 Napa Valley wineries have caves, and more are being created all the time—although the picks and shovels have been replaced by heavy-duty construction equipment. Originally built for the storage of wine barrels, some caves now contain a winery's entire operations.

Digging a cave is less expensive than constructing a building for similar purposes. Caves save energy costs by providing constant humidity (80-90%) and temperature (55°- 60° F), reduce evaporation of wine, and require less governmental approval. Plus they have less visual impact on the landscape, and offer a great—and often magnificent—location for tastings, dinners and musical events.

Caves can be humble tunnels for barrel aging or definitely unhumble. For example, take Villa Amarosa in St. Helena. Currently under construction by V. Sattui Winery owner Darryl Sattui, the cave will sit below an 89,000 square foot "14th century" castle with three floors of wine cellars, more than 60 rooms, and a 1,000 square foot well-equipped medieval torture chamber (presumably for viewing only). Also under construction is Palmaz Winery in Napa, owned by the co-inventor of the cardiovascular stent. The 50,000 square foot winery will be completely underground, and will include a 50-foot high, 75-foot wide dome reminiscent of the interior of a mosque. Wine storage will be take place 11 stories underground.

For detailed information on wine cave construction, we recommend this website: www.winecaves.com.