Checkerboard Ranch
19,000 Sq. Ft. Wine Cave
Checkerboard Ranch Breakthrough: August 17, 2007
On August 17th, Nordby Wine Caves achieved breakthrough at the #2 East Portal being constructed for the Checkerboard Ranch Winery. Located high on the west ridge of the Diamond Mountain District in Calistoga California, the Checkerboard Wine Cave is characterized by excellent tunneling conditions that allowed excavation and support of over 2,000 square feet of tunnel along with construction of two portal structures in less than two months.
In order to meet the owners’ harvest deadline, we capitalized on our dedicated employee efforts, working more than 50 hours a week at no additional cost to our client. Objectives during the accelerated schedule for this project included placement, compaction and construction of the large Eastern MSE walls (mechanically stabilized earth) built from cave spoils. As cave spoils were produced from the cave, they were placed in layers and recompacted. Over 4,000 cubic yards of earth was worked to produce approximately 12,000 square feet of usable crush pad area.
Nordby Wine Caves will tunnel through almost 8,000 yards of rock to produce the 19,000 square foot cave at Checkerboard Ranch, which will include a 600 foot long main barrel storage tunnel, three cave portals and large barrel storage rooms measuring 22 feet wide by 13 feet high.