We’ve pretty much finalized the floorplan that we are going to submit to the county at this point. The only major addition to the design is that we moved the driveway from the west side of the building to the east (click on the picture to enlarge). This allows us to start the decent earlier in the driveway (about midway past the garage/office) so that we can create a flat landing at the Upper Cellar entrance. This will make forklifting barrels and T-bins around much easier.

The covered Receiving area is open on 3 sides, but there will be an 8-10 foot high tellis along the north opening to give our neighbor a prettier view. Our plan to not have anything nailed down is pretty much intact. We’ll still need to install blending tanks down in the lower cellar, but other than that the workspace is extremely modular.

All in all we’ve been able to accomplish our goals without sacrificing too many vines (around 2 rows x 100 feet), kept the garden intact, and we’ve got very a functional gravity flow production facility.

Retaining wall cost will be pretty high due to all the excavating that will be required, but our architects have lots of experience designing without destroying the budget (Del also designed La Crema and is currently working on the new Round Barn facitlity in Santa Rosa).

Next week I should have some conceptual drawings to share. Good times.