Muddy Water Winery was designed to be a flexible sustainable winemaking space and we are happy that it has delivered on this over the past eleven harvests.

The walls of the building are plastered cement over straw bale which provides excellent insulation. Cooling in the winery is provided by vents along the bottom of the winery walls which open according to a thermostatic control which also starts extractor fans in the apex of the end walls – so the warm air from near the ceiling is sucked out and replaced by cool moist air. Most of this happens at night while we sleep and is much better for the environment than a large air conditioning unit.

All winery equipment (except the large tanks) can be easily moved with a forklift to give us complete flexibility. The “forklift” design means that Dominic, Gavin or Sylvain can access any barrel or load the press without assistance when necessary – we are however quite dependent on our trusty forklift!