Projects

• Location: Madison, Virginia
• Architect: William P. Bowling, III NCARB
• Owner: Early Mountain Winery
• Size: 28,100 SF

Early Mountain Winery’s Production Facility was immediately followed by the construction of their Tasting Facility for this new Virginia winery just outside Charlottesville, and was completed at the end of March 2009.  This two-story Production Facility is a state-of-the-art, gravity-fed wine production operation with grape reception and processing equipment, fermentation and chilling tanks, and bottling and storage capabilities.

Interior features include an elevated concrete mezzanine area for receiving and processing, an aluminum catwalk system in the Barrel Room that surrounds 30 stainless steel wine tanks which were imported from Italy, an overhead monorail that provides a hoist and punch down system utilized in the fermentation process, twin chillers and recirculation pumps to provide a subfreezing glycol mixture to the tanks, and a fully digital process control system that remotely controls tank temperature to precision within a tenth of a degree.

Additional features include a research and development lab, bottling line, and chilled storage to house the final product.  A 64,000 gallon exterior storage tank provides enough water to perform the wine production process, as well as acting as the main water source for the fire protection system.  A complex drip disposal system removes the process waste water from the facility and introduces it back into the soil while creating a minimal impact to the environment.

Early Mountain Winery was named America’s Favorite Tasting Room via USA Today in August 2016.