Wine Caverns and Breezeway
The wine caverns were the first step in the creation of the Ironstone Vineyards Winery and destination facility in Murphys, California, and served as the facility's first tasting room.
In 1989, the Kautz family assembled a crew of professional miners, which, from-day-to-day, often included as many as three generations from the same family. These included some of the “old timers” that had worked the early gold and gem mines. They blasted, picked, and shoveled their way through 10,000 square feet of limestone and schist rock to form the wine caverns. The project took ten months to complete, and on many days, the miners would only make two to three feet of progress. The rock was so hard and difficult, the miners often said it was like blasting through iron. Thus, we became “Ironstone Vineyards.”
The caverns maintain a constant temperature of 60 degrees farenheit no matter what the temperature is outside. Combined with the 70-percent humidity provided by the natural spring waterfall inside the caverns, the conditions are ideal for wine aging. The constant temperature prevents the barrels from expanding and contracting — thus leaking wine — and the humidity minimizes evaporation.
The caverns hold a maximum of 1,500 French and American oak barrels, each holding sixty gallons of wine. The beautiful wooden doors that grace the entrance to the caverns and the breezeway, as well as the tasting room, are made from 100-year-old redwood fermentation barrels from the Di-Augustini Winery in Plymouth, California, one of the oldest commercial operating wineries in the state.
In addition to aging wine in the caverns, the caverns are also aging! Although they have been sprayed with 6 inches of gunnite to prevent erosion, the caverns age naturally, and stalactites, stalagmites, and other geological formations are easy to spot as you wander through the caverns.
The Breezeway
Nestled in the barrel filled caverns and the tank farm, where the Ironstone wines are fermented and aged, is a unique, working winery area that feels much more like a movie set, with lush, flowing waterfalls and impressive wood cavern doors.
Due to the proximity of the actual winemaking production, this large, covered semi-outdoor space is truly an exciting location for food and wine lovers during the late summer and autumn grape crush. In March, the Breezeway is the site of the annual Northern California Daffodil Society & Calaveras County Garden Club flower shows, which are a large part of our annual Spring Obsession, a festival of food, wine, art and daffodils.
Built into the rock walls, in the breezeway, is a permanent stage which makes it an unusual and fun location for private parties, wedding receptions, as well as plays, music shows and other events.
Interesting Facts
Ironstone Vineyards has roughly over 1 million gallons of storage capacity with oak barrels and stainless steel tanks.
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