FROM VINE TO TABLE, A WINEMAKERS DREAM
BUILD TYPE
Renovation
LOCATION
La Jolla, California
PROJECT LEADS
Pancho Dewhurst
Builder
Michael Morton
Architect
SERVICES
Pre Construction
Construction
CLIENT NEED
This project grew out of a friendship and a long professional history. GDC designed and remodeled winemaker Lowell Jooste’s La Jolla home, and Jooste was so impressed with the work that when it came time to realize his lifelong dream of creating a wine tasting room, he called on GDC to bring his vision to fruition. The idea was to create a venue to showcase wine blends delivered straight from the barrel to the customer. And it was all to be done on a challenging, narrow former bakery in Bird Rock. Old friends as well as colleagues, Pancho and Lowell put their heads together with award-winning local architect Michael Morton and LJ Crafted Wines was born.
OUR SOLUTION
The space always had to showcase the extraordinary wines Jooste is crafting from the best California grapes. So, the room was designed to incorporate recycled features from the winemaking industry: Light fittings made from old barrel irons; one wall cladded with the aged oak from wine barrels and wine casks doubling as intimate tables. But there were practical considerations too: Building an office and workable warehouse space into the narrow site, and creating a slight slope for disabled access, across the entire floor from back office to street, created its own challenges. But the result, complete with the biggest surfboard local shaper Tim Bessell has ever made fronting onto the street, is a healthy marriage of design and ingenuity.
