Heavily Carved Wine Cellar Door

Because of the long European tradition of detailed woodworking in wine cellars going back hundreds of years along, with a growing appreciation of wine in this country, I have always jumped at an opportunity to do work around this area of the house or business. A contractor I had worked with in the past, known for high-quality detailed work gave me a call and said his client was building a wine cellar in his home in Fairbanks Ranch, CA. He thought I was the perfect guy to design, build, and hand carve the wine cellar door.

I met the contractor and his client at the home. The wine cellar had a prominent location in the dining room. I immediately had an idea of a classical wine cellar door with a dark distressed finish. My concept was to make a thick arched door with large raised mouldings and heavy relief carvings of grape vines. The vines would be asymmetrical, starting at the base of the door and running up the left side, branching off the panel and across the raised moulding to the door frame forming the handle. 

The carving is in very heavy relief and very detailed with undercut leaves and branches crossing the moulding and frame several times. This gives the carving a look as if the vines had actually grown there. The heavy jamb also has carved details. The hardware includes iron forged ring pulls, hinges and forged iron and copper clavos at the base of the door.

I built this door in 2002. The design is timeless. The quality is such that it will last hundreds of years. It's really a magnificient piece of art.