The Last Wine

[bein_bein]

Well, here it is... the last wine ever made at Lamont Cellars

A crystal clear golden hue Tomato wine...

Lamont Cellars is what we called our wine-making venture carried out here

in the sleepy little town called Lamont. But....since we sold our big 'ol house in November and since moved I wouldn't feel right calling future wines by the LC moniker. That, along with the fact that we currently are living in a 670 sq ft apartment with our two Border Collies, means there won't be any wine making this year.... That's quite an adjustment from our 5 bd rm, 3 bath with a finished basement :< But hopefully by this fall we will be moved into our new home we are building, and I can spend the winter completing the corner of the basement we have dedicated ( ok... to the corner of the basement I have dedicated ) to making wine.
I even have the new Winery name and logo

I'll be keeping pretty busy with my portion of the build, but I'll try to keep our progress updated here...no guarantees... but I'll try

 

[JohnT]

HMMMM, building a new home. This does mean that you can build you house WITH winemaking in mind. Heck, you could even have a whole addition dedicated to it!!!

Just thinking of the possibilities is exhausting!

 

[bein_bein]

HMMMM, building a new home. This does mean that you can build you house WITH winemaking in mind. ....

Just thinking of the possibilities is exhausting!

Here's the foundation floor plan, you can see we did just that

And since we are only doing the upper level for the initial construction, that leaves the whole basement open to 'design changes' But will definitely have a dedicated cellar and tasting room. The only thing I had hoped to do was have a walk-out for future expansion to 50 or 100 gal storage containers but our land is too flat for that. Buuut, with the 7 acres we now have there's room for planting some grape vines
I'm getting way ahead of myself though... gotta get a house built first... lol

 

[salcoco]

if it is no to late put a drain in the floor of future wine room. it will help a lot when cleaning up after a wine press especially.

 

[Boatboy24]

I like the new logo AND the layout. Good luck with the construction and move.

We moved last year and though we no longer live with Broad Run flowing behind our house, I kept the name.

 

[bkisel]

Very nice photos. Is photography one of your hobbies?

 

[wineforfun]

Agree with Jim, really like that logo.

 

[Jericurl]

Congratulations! And I love the layout as well.

If I ever get to build a wine room, I want a drain in the floor and a large utility sink.

 

[bein_bein]

Very nice photos. Is photography one of your hobbies?

Thank you, but no, I just do the best I can with the cameras I have. Some day I would like to get a GOOD camera and take up photography...in all my spare time...lol

Congratulations! And I love the layout as well.

If I ever get to build a wine room, I want a drain in the floor and a large utility sink.

My plan is to find used stainless steel industrial type sink, something like this

There's a salvage yard near me that has these type of sinks from time to time, just gotta hit it at the right time I was thinking of having the sink drain double as the floor drain as well. I'll talk with my plumber to see what he recommends.

And thanks for the kudos on the Logo It's one on the few times something came out looking like what I envisioned on the first try, I am very pleased with it. Hopefully when I stain the concrete floor I can create a stencil to have the logo on the floor of the tasting room. This is wineroom v1.0 (as I'm sire there will be many revisions during the planning )

 

[bkisel]

Was your new logo designed purposefully with the suggestion of a pane window in its center?

 

[Mismost]

Ok is it just me or did the .... A crystal clear golden hue Tomato wine... not jump out at anybody else??

I have heard of making wine from tomatoes before...but, I would really like to know more about it! We always wind up throwing tomatoes over the garden fence, the deer love them....my wife seems to think 24-30 plants is the magic number! WAY too many getting ripe at the same time.

 

[bein_bein]

Was your new logo designed purposefully with the suggestion of a pane window in its center?

ummm ...yes..yes it was.. lol. To be honest, no, it wasn't a purposeful design feature, but it did work out that way. My main focus was layering the letters to mimc the name while using the trailing half of the "N" to for the leading part of the "W". The center 'window' was just a co-inky-dink

Ok is it just me or did the .... A crystal clear golden hue Tomato wine... not jump out at anybody else??

I have heard of making wine from tomatoes before...but, I would really like to know more about it! We always wind up throwing tomatoes over the garden fence, the deer love them....my wife seems to think 24-30 plants is the magic number! WAY too many getting ripe at the same time.

Well have to see how this one ages... it has a 'peculiar' taste. If you drink the wine not giving much thought to what your drinking, it tastes...well.. skanky is the best work to describe it
BUT... if you drink it thinking 'tomatoes' , it takes on a different flavor and you can actually taste the tomato...hopefully the 'skank' wears off with time...lol

 

[jswordy]

Sigh... First change order on the plans...

 

[JohnT]

.. and the remaining room should be marked "Wine Equipment storage"...

 

[bein_bein]

Thought I'd give you guys a little progress report. After 3 months of setbacks (due mainly from a screwup by the title company) we finally are getting under way.

Staked out the house..

Got the driveway put in..

Had the excavators dig for the foundation..

Poured the foundation..

Then yesterday they backfilled and tomorrow we will pour the lower level floor.

Hopefully our framers will be able to get started next week... then my work really begins

 

[Johny99]

Love the logo. Simple and elegant.

Planning a wine room in the new house is a wonderful opportunity.

Suggestions from one who did it. Never too big. Bottle storage, empty, is an issue as I reuse all bottles. Storage for 40-50 cases a year takes space.

Think about lifting. I designed my room when I could lift a 50l keg or barrel. No longer. Having a strong enough ceiling structure for a 500lb hoist saved me.

Floor drain is a must and at least here in WA, it has to be separate from the sink. Plus, when you pull the plug on the sink, you don't want all that lovely wash water coming up the floor drain.

I dream of a commercial sink like you show, someday. So far mine is just a nice laundry sink.

Lastly, cable and network, and finish it well. I spend a lot of time down there. A place for pictures, medals and ribbons is nice.

 

[bein_bein]

Hey guys, haven't been posting but that doesn't mean I aint been busy as a one legged man in a butt kickin' contest! As you may remember, we sold our house and were gonna build. I'll spare you the details, but after 3 months of delays, we finally got started on June 21. Been a lot of 60-80hr weeks since January since I made all the interior trim from rough saw cherry my father gave me. Plus I have done all electrical, built the decks, exterior trim and stone work, cabinet installation and installed the zero-clearance fireplace from floor to cap (plus a bunch of little detail stuff) So we're sitting at 4 months and two weeks from the start date.

We've gone from this...

To this...

And here's the trim we made and installed...

Plan is to be ready to move in by end of the month!! Anybody around Grand Rapids Mi is welcome to help us move, I'm sure there will be beer and/or wine involved... AFTER the moving is done of course.

(and there was silence...lol)

 

[Kraffty]

Just beautiful! Would love to see it when it's complete

 

[Johnd]

Very nice, that's a lot of work! The wood looks fabulous as trim and base!

Hope you saved a few bottles of the tomato wine for the housewarming party!

 

[Rodnboro]

Looking good!