Clayton Korte Completes a Massive, Bunker-like Wine Cave in Texas
Everything’s bigger.
It’s fitting that this design is in Texas. With its trademarked exuberance, the state now has a massive wine cave set in the hillside in Hill Country by Clayton Korte.
In a secluded bend of the Blanco River, this shotcrete-lined wine cave is built directly into the side of a solid limestone hill.
With a relatively unassuming entrance, this project might as well be where Indiana Jones keeps his merlot. The board-formed concrete entryway, with a walk lined with large boulders, pokes out of the greenery with a shrine-like glow at night.
An existing tunnel 18 feet wide by 70 feet deep was remodelled into this private grape oasis. As if the owners were following a need to get as far away from interruption as possible, the interior is a stunning design, where walls panelled in Douglas fir and a cedar live-edged countertop set the scene in the tasting room. The louvre in the ceiling creates a sense of depth and width and negates the potential for claustrophobia one gets in a, you know, literal cave.
It’s like a ship in a bottle,” notes Brian Korte, lead architect for the project. “The components of the wood insert are deliberately kept away from the existing cave walls so that the room remains adaptable.”
The tasting room leads into cellar that hosts the private collection’s 4,000 bottles, give or take. Of course, it’s thermally controlled by the subterranean elements, with a supplemental cooling system.
Here’s to enjoying a nice glass for the bespoke cavemen and -women everywhere.
