All grapes from Coal Pit’s 12 hectare vineyard are crafted in our new on-site, state-of-the-art winery designed by award-winning architect Chris Kelly of the Architecture Workshop in Wellington.
The winery contains a cellar door, a temperature- and humidity-controlled barrel room, a loft apartment, laboratory and meeting rooms that face north toward the Crown Range Mountains and the Kawarau River.
While the construction of the winery was still in progress for the 2008 harvest, the winery equipment was in place in time to process the grapes on-site.
Viticulturist Gary Crabbe and his wife, winemaker Lynn Horton – both long-time Gibbston Valley residents – advised that the 12-hectare site yielded 22.5 tonnes of Pinot Noir and 15 tonnes of Sauvignon Blanc this year.
The decision to build the winery on site, rather than sending the grapes away for production, was motivated by the desire to be able to hand-pick the grapes at their best and transfer them straight into the fermenting tanks within half an hour, thereby maintaining vibrancy and delicate flavours.
Congratulations to Christopher Kelly from Architecture Workshop Ltd who received an award in the Commercial Architecture category at the Southern Architecture Awards 2009 for the design of our winery.
NZIA Southern Architecture Awards 2009
In 2006 Architecture Workshop was commissioned to design a new winery shed at Coal Pit Road in the viticulture landscape of the Gibbston Valley.
Architecture Workshop comments "We worked closely with the owner Rosie Dunphy of Coal Pit Wines Ltd to extend the existing cluster of buildings. We tried to reduce the bulk of the larger building and set the shed as a backdrop.
The simple idea was for a minimum gradient gable roof to float over heavy cloistered precast concrete walls set into the ground. The natural slope of the site was used to excavate the 190-barrel storage room. This gave height for the working area above to load directly into the stainless steel fermenter tanks. The winery catwalk circulates from this half storey set down around the main work pad under the gable centre line. The main doors are centred on this gable. The winemaker and services lab rooms access directly off the lower work pad and lookout north over the sloping vines to the Gibbston Valley.
The upper floor level will provide future accommodation and can be accessed from the continuation of the catwalk. The cantilevered front edge provides sheltered outdoor space below for the many social activities supported around wine making.
The intention was to make an ‘elegant shed’ to house the winery. The roof forms an open veranda to protect the work pad at the southern end. The gentle canopy evokes the wool shed forms of earlier times and recalls the previous pastoral land use. The top floor is also hung from the roof to maximise the upper floor cantilever and exaggerate the impression of lightness."
Credits
Client:
Coal Pit Wines Ltd. - Mike Gentles, Rosie Dunphy
Main Contractor:
Lund South Ltd. – Russell Lund, Shane Trench
Architects:
Architecture Workshop Ltd. – Christopher Kelly, James Fenton, Dale Fincham, Craig Howard
Structural Engineer:
Dunning Thornton Consultants Ltd. – Alistair Cattanach, Bahjat Harach
Fire Engineer:
Holmes Fire & Safety Ltd. – Kevin Irwin
