The Winery - The Cave Facilities

The Jarvis winemaking facility is totally contained within 45,000 square feet of cave tunneled into the scenic Vacas Mountains four miles east of the town of Napa. It is not only a visual masterpiece, but a technical masterpiece as well.

It has long been noted that many of the finest wines come from caves. Due to the invariant temperature and high humidity level of caves wineries have typically used caves for the barrel aging of wines. Jarvis was the first in this country, however, to tunnel a cave so large that it could hold all the wine making operation. With the help of the chief geotechnic consultant Gregg Korbin and the largest computer at UC Berkeley, William Jarvis was able to successfully plan and design the large chambers of our underground winery. As the cave extends further into the mountain, the chambers become larger. Pushing the state of the art, the last chamber would comfortably contain two full basketball courts. These chambers allow even the large fermentation tanks to be underground and out of sight, thus preserving the unmarred beauty of the natural outside environment.

The underlying principle behind the Jarvis cave construction is that a parabolic shaped tunnel is inherently stable, so the cave tunnels and chambers are in the shape of a true parabola. Throughout the cave you will find many references to its parabolic structure. With the help of Jim Gangwer and other artisans, the cast bronze doors, brass wall sconces, arched alcoves and fiber optic chandeliers add to the mystique and beauty of the cave.

"English mining machines, which happen to be very good at turning corners, were used to generate the very useful circular pattern of the winery. This circular design allows for a very efficient operation, and allows the winemaker and his lab to be no more than a few hundred feet from the farthest aging galleries" -William Jarvis.

Capitalizing on the natural underground water, the stream and waterfall running through the center of the winery function to maintain the humidity level in the cave at an ideal level for the barrel aging of wines. However, the cascading water also provides a beautifully calming aesthetic feature to all who encounter it.

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