Cottonwood Canyon was the first and only winery in Santa Barbara County to build wine caves! Wine caves are subterranean structures built for the purpose of storing and aging wine. Owner and winemaker Norm Beko hand-built our custom-made wine cave doors out of a 200-year-old redwood tree from an old Ohio bridge.
Our philosophy is to process our grapes as naturally as possible; utilizing the near-perfect conditions of the caves which allow the wine to develop in barrels without any interruptions. Benefits to wine caves include energy efficiency, water efficiency and space efficiency. Wine caves naturally provide both high humidity and cool temperatures, which is key to the storage and aging of wine. Burrowed beneath Cottonwood’s hillside, our cave temperature maintains a constant 62 ̊F with a humidity level rounding up to 95 percent. This man-made cave is approximately 6,000 square feet with 475 linear feet.
Join us for a short walk through our vineyard on the way to our wine caves, where we will discuss our wine-making process, how the caves influence our wines, and how to pair our wines with food.
Wine caves
The first wine caves built in Santa Barbara County!
Minimum of 4 people per tour at $45 per person.
