A winery is a temperature building with a heavy floor
A winery receives grapes, ferments them, ages the wine, and bottles it. The crush and fermentation stage is warm and wet; the barrel cellar is cool and stable. They are usually under the same roof and they want different buildings.
Fermentation releases a lot of heat
Yeast converting sugar to alcohol generates heat, and in a tank of must that heat has to be removed or the fermentation runs too fast and the wine is spoiled.
That makes the fermentation hall a temperature-controlled space with a large cooling load, and the cooling is often achieved by passing cold water through jackets on the tanks rather than by cooling the room. Either way, the hall has to remove the heat that escapes.
The barrel cellar wants the opposite
Barrels are stored cool and at stable humidity, often underground or in an insulated room. The requirement is stability rather than a specific number: daily swings are worse than a slightly higher constant temperature.
An insulated envelope with thermal mass is the traditional answer, and a steel building can provide it if the insulation and the vapour barrier are designed as a system. A steel wall with insulation added later will condense on the cold side.
Tanks and barrels are dense loads on small footprints
A full fermentation tank is a large mass on legs. A barrel stack is a dense load spread across a rack. Both need a floor designed for them, and the tank legs need foundations that do not settle differentially against each other.
Where tanks are outdoors, which is common in warm climates, the building is relieved of the load but the tank farm becomes a separate structural problem with its own wind and foundation questions.
The crush pad is the busiest part of the site
Grapes arrive in bins during a short harvest and are tipped, crushed and pressed. The pad takes vehicle loads, it is wet with juice, and it is used intensively for a few weeks a year.
That pattern means the pad is designed for peak load and then stands idle, which makes it a candidate for a simple, robust slab rather than an elaborate one. It also means the drainage has to handle a large volume in a short period.
Washdown is constant and the floor slopes matter
Juice, lees and cleaning water all reach the floor. A winery floor without falls becomes a slippery, staining surface within one harvest, and the wash water carries organic load that has to be treated.
What I want before drawings
- The tank schedule with masses and support arrangements.
- Whether fermentation is cooled by jacket or by room.
- The barrel cellar temperature and humidity requirements.
- The harvest volume, the crush pad area and the vehicle sizes.
- The effluent volume and route.
- The wind speed for the site in km/h from the applicable local code, not a round number.
Wineries are seasonal buildings on year-round sites, and the design should reflect which parts work hard for a few weeks and which work quietly for decades.
Written by Johnny Joe, who advises owners and project managers in Africa and South America on steel buildings. If this decision is live on a project, send the layout and the constraint that worries you and I will tell you what it changes.
Related: vessel loads and cleaning in place · a wet process beside cold rooms · the bottling hall downstream · how the harvest arrives
