The Wine Club Deck, Part 1

Almost every Wednesday, the 4 Pina brothers meet to discuss the winery business & operations. At one of these meetings last September, I suggested that we build a deck above the winery for use during our various events for our Wine Club members. We discussed it at length and the brothers gave me the go ahead.


The first step was deciding on a location. I walked the hillside and found a beautiful spot between the two upper vineyards. The view was incredible! And it was even fairly flat, unlike most of the property. But, it was quite a trek to get there and a bit too far from the winery & restroom. So the search continued.


I found a small corner below the vineyard that could handle the 12’ X 12’ deck and marked it out for the brothers to review for input & approval.

 Davie suggested I change the orientation slightly so we could put in a bigger deck – a whopping 16’ X 16’! So I did. The brothers checked it out and liked it. Davie sent over a backhoe operator to get the area roughly leveled.

So, I started working on it. I chose to work alone in the early stages, because I needed to spend as much time thinking about the project as working on it, and I’m not comfortable with folks standing around waiting for me to direct them. Once I had the foundation under way, I called on my son Ty to help me. I knew he would be okay with waiting for me to sort my thoughts out. On top of that, he was anxious to learn about construction. We worked well together.

Ty framing the foundation.

Here, the foundation is almost complete. It was about here that brother John jumped in and treated the wood with a high quality sealer. It’s an important job that goes unnoticed - Thanks John!

In this picture, the deck was nearing completion. The rains started and it seems there were few extended dry periods for the next several months. But finally, it was time for the first official use of the deck.

On Saturday, April 24th, we had our Howell Mountain, Buckeye Vineyard Cabernet release party. Our Red Tilde Wine Club members were invited up to the deck for chocolate, pictures and wine tasting.

We opened up magnums of our 2002 Buckeye & 2005 D’Adamo Cabs. And we also poured our new release Chardonnay. They were all well received!

Even though the deck isn't too much higher than the winery, the slight increase in elevation is quite noticable.

Joe Bauer (left) took pictures all day of our Club members while Tom Shirmang poured wine at our Reserve tasting table.

And these silly ladies, Cindy Pina & Lori Bauer, greeted folks, poured wine and kept everything running smoothly on the deck.

Also serving on the deck, my son Tyler, & myself (I'm on the right)

Linda & Randy (Placerville) were the first Club Members to visit the deck

Followed closely by Sandy & Ron (Napa)

There are so many pictures to share that I will be adding additional posts to include them all. Check back for Part 2!