Jim and Mary Dierberg’s Star Lane Wine Caves

by Laura Sanchez

Photography by Peter Malinowski

“Wine belongs in a cave,” says Jim Dierberg as he and his wife, Mary—owners of Dierberg Estate Vineyards, Star Lane Vineyards and Three Saints Wines—walk the cool, subterranean passageways of their Star Lane wine caves. The silent 13-foot-wide tunnels, lined with barrels of maturing wine, feel sacred and still, like a lost city. “There’s just something about the earth that ages it to perfection.”

On a deeply primitive level caves symbolize shelter—shade from hot summer sun and insulation from biting winter weather. And for modern-day vintners like the Dierbergs, reverting to this natural, seemingly stone-age simplicity has progressive results. In fact, by returning to the cave, they have advanced their winemaking efforts—limiting their use of natural resources and taking advantage of an ancient alchemistic effect. For, hidden from light, sound, heat and movement, simple grape juice evolves slowly and optimally to reach its glorious potential.

History tells us that this discovery can be attributed to the Etruscans, whose dedicated use of caves to store wine around 800 B.C. represents some of the first accounts of subterranean wine cellaring. The Romans continued this tradition throughout the fourth century A.D., using catacombs and tunnels they excavated throughout Europe to house clay vessels of wine. Today vintners throughout La Rioja, Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux—some of Europe’s great wine regions—still use these ancient caverns to store their wines.

The wisdom of wine caves is also celebrated throughout Napa Valley, where a tangle of tunnels, excavated in the 1870s after the completion of the transcontinental railroad, house countless vintages beneath some of California’s most distinguished vineyards. However until recently, Santa Barbara County boasted only two ostensible wine caves, those at Sunstone Winery and Cottonwood Canyon Winery. Jim and Mary Dierberg set out to change that in 2001 with the construction of their Happy Canyon winemaking facility.

Throughout their extensive world travels as owners of FirstBank, the Dierbergs discovered a consistent thread: The finest wines they sampled—from Bordeauxs to Brunellos—had all been aged in caves. So when it came time to construct the winery facility, they made sure to include 26,000 square feet of subterranean wine storage.

Working with architect Barry Berkus, the Dierbergs designed a conservation-minded facility that balanced functionality and beauty. Rather than develop acres of their pristine property to accommodate industrial warehouses for wine storage, they decided to nestle the Bordelaise-style facility into the side of the mountain, making smart use of the space below it.

“We farm sustainably and do our best to work with nature. We thought that our winery should reflect that,” Jim explains. And by going underground, they dramatically reduced their environmental footprint. Today the hillside surrounding the winery is alive with wildlife, native grasses and tall digger pines while a silent community of maturing wines rests beneath.

Since the earth is such a remarkable insulator from heat, cold, drying air and light, the Dierbergs knew that constructing wine caves would increase the energy efficiency of their facility. Many wineries find maintaining a constant temperature of 55° to 60° F (ideal for wine storage) both energy consuming and expensive.
The Dierbergs’ Star Lane caves offer an alternative to refrigeration and heating units since the soil surrounding the concrete walls helps maintain an optimal temperature of 55° F. In order to maximize this natural refrigeration, they also employ an eco-friendly night cooling system that allows cool air in when the nighttime temperatures are low.

However, pioneering the cave permitting process in Santa Barbara County proved challenging. With no precedents, the Dierbergs researched regulations in Napa and Sonoma Counties for answers to engineering issues and safety regulations. Details like automatic light switches and fire sprinklers raised thoughtful debate along the way. As a result, the caves are fully equipped for fire suppression though they contain nothing flammable within their pale concrete walls. Over the course of the seven-year process, County engineers and local agencies worked with the Dierbergs to establish Santa Barbara County’s first wine cave building codes.

The excavation was equally demanding. The Dierbergs hired Montana-based mining contractor and cave specialist, Mark
“the Caveman” Auge to carve out numerous tons of rock and soil. Equipped with laser surveying equipment and backhoe, Auge averaged 20 feet of progress each day, pausing to support each section of the cave with a sturdy metal framework. Once excavated, the walls were sprayed with concrete, applied two inches at a time, to create a solid, 14-inch-thick coating. The structure, likened to an inverted swimming pool, required four trucks of cement each day for two years.

Both the scale of the project and its sense of permanence can be considered forward-thinking. “It’s clear that the Dierbergs built this winery with future generations in mind,” says Kurt Ammann, director of consumer marketing for Star Lane and Dierberg Vineyards. “The facility is an Old World masterpiece, constructed with New World resourcefulness,” he adds. The cave’s three main corridors, transected by two smaller hallways, create a city-like grid with a grand, high-ceilinged central room for entertaining. A beautiful wine library, designed to store 120 bottles from each vintage through 2100, ensures that the unique flavors captured in every harvest can be savored in the decades to come.

The winery is also progressive in its efficient use of nature’s simplest energy source. With its tri-layer construction, the winery employs gravity rather than energy-consuming pumps to convey wine. The crush pad is strategically positioned on top of the winery so at harvest time fruit can be unloaded above the winemaking facility. Grapes are pressed and tipped into open-top wood fermenters in the Pantheon-like central room on the second level. Wines follow gravity’s natural flow down to the labyrinth of steel tanks and tubing before they are laid to rest in the quiet corridors of the cave. While conserving energy, this gentle handling also promotes optimum flavor extraction.

The humidity of the caves has a definitive quality-enhancing effect on the wines. The constant subterranean humidity mitigates much of the evaporation loss that above-ground winemakers incur each year. Since a typical 60-gallon barrel, stored in a warehouse, can lose three to four gallons each year, winemakers have to periodically top off wine barrels by pumping in additional wine to reduce the surface contact with air. However because the Dierbergs’ caves maintain an ideal 78% relative humidity, that loss is reduced to about one gallon per year, making topping off unnecessary. “We see less oxidation in the wines and the result is higher overall quality,” explains Nick de Luca, winemaker for Star Lane and Dierberg Vineyards. While the slow evolution granted by the cave enhances all the Dierberg Estate, Star Lane Vineyards and Three Saints wines, the superior fruit concentration and complexity is especially notable in the 2005 Astral Cabernet Sauvignon’s poetic richness.

According to de Luca, the undisturbed peace of the cave’s tunnels also has a profound influence on the wines. Whereas most wineries store barrels on tall vertical racks that must be shuffled by forklift from time to time, the spaciousness of Dierberg’s Star Lane caves allows for pyramid barrel stacking. Once a barrel is put to rest within the caves, it’s rarely disturbed. This more permanent placement allows for clean and complete settling of the lees (yeast) and sediment (grape particles), resulting in impeccable wine clarity without filtration or fining.

“The stillness allows our wines to develop remarkably vibrant, youthful flavors with the body and weight of an unfiltered wine,” says de Luca. Though this vibrancy is unmistakable in both the lithe freshness of the 2007 Star Lane Sauvignon Blanc and the Dierberg Estate Chardonnay, it is also deliciously apparent in the dynamic fruit at the center of the 2006 Star Lane Cabernet Sauvignon’s deep cherry, cocoa-dusted core.

With enhanced wine quality and significant environmental benefits, it’s apparent that by returning to something primitive, Jim and Mary Dierberg have tapped into one of Mother Earth’s fundamental truths: Harmonizing with nature produces superior results. And as they taste the fruits of their labors amid the cave’s cool tunnels, the benefits of their grounded mindfulness are vivid in wine that resonates with the purity, depth and wisdom of the earth.

Laura Sanchez is a Santa Barbara–based wine and food writer. Raised on her family’s Carpinteria avocado ranch, she has a deep appreciation for both growing and enjoying fresh local fare.

Wine Caves

For more information on Dierberg Estate Vineyards, Star Lane Vineyards and Three Saints Wines, visit dierbergvineyard.com.

Though the Dierberg’s Star Lane wine caves are not open to the public, here are two that welcome visitors:

Cottonwood Canyon

3940 Dominion Road
Santa Maria, CA 93454
805 937-8463
cottonwoodcanyon.com

Sunstone Vineyards and Winery

125 North Refugio Road
Santa Ynez, CA 93460
805 688-9463
sunstonewinery.com