Wine Cellar in a Tilt-Up 'Bottle'

Herzog Wine Cellar opened its $13 million, 71,000-sq.-ft. winemaking facility on Camino del Sol in January, relocating from its rented Santa Maria site.

PHOTO COURTESY OF POLIQUIN KELLOGG DESIGN GROUP.

The 5,000-sq.-ft wine-tasting room should open in November, said Jason Williams, project manager of Whittier-based Oltmans Construction, the general contractor of the tilt-up building.

Principals of the kosher winery selected Oxnard to be near its observant Jewish employees, many who live 30 miles away in the San Fernando Valley, said Herzog winemaker Joe Hurliman. The close proximity of its grape sources was also a factor, he added.

"We had a lot of kosher rules and regulations to follow in designing the winery," said architect Alan Grofsky from Woodland Hills-based Poliquin Kellogg Design Group. "Some rooms had to have locks to keep out the public and non-religious Jews. And certain rooms needed to branch from specific hallways."

The two-story facility includes a tank room containing stainless-steel, 50,000-gal. tanks, barrel room to age the wine, bottling area capable of producing 220,000 cases a year and a temperature-controlled warehouse.

--Kathy Lee Scott

advertisement