Page 17 - CMA PROfiles Fall 2018

By Carla Atkinson

storytelling
Science &

Denver-based Savanté creates skillfully crafted, beautifully detailed wine
cellars – and it all began with an unexpected invitation from a client.

When you talk to Darryl Hogeback about building business in the early 80s, and it was later in his career
wine cellars, it doesn’t take long to realize that the that he stumbled on the wine cellar niche.
work is far more than a job for him. While doing the cabinetry and millwork for a house

A wine cellar, he has come to believe, is not really in Aspen, the clients asked if he’d like to do the wine
about holding the wine that a client has collected; cellar, too. Hogeback agreed, taking a furniture design
at its heart, it’s a home for the stories behind he had created in the early 80s and incorporating
those bottles. that into the new wine room. After that first job, he
Hogeback’s projects are often built around a story noticed that a lot of clients’ homes featured wine
— a client’s memorable trip to a beautiful vineyard racking systems that were a basic redwood ladder
in Napa or a wine they discovered overseas. One style, he recalls. “They were not elegant and didn’t
wine cellar he built features a painting that the client really live up to the ambience of these $10 million
bought in Chile, portraying a harvester carrying a homes,” he says. “I thought I would focus on that and
sack of grapes; the painting hangs in a prominent create higher-end, higher-quality system for clients
spot in the room. and give them more options for storing their wine.”
Infusing these powerful stories into the look and Hogeback has been creating wine cellars for 14 years
feel of a wine cellar is the most enjoyable part of his under the name Savanté Wine Cellars; in the early
work, Hogeback says. days, he did his homework, reading and talking with
sommeliers and collectors. He now he brings far
“I build the rooms not to get the ‘wow’ about how more than design and wood-working expertise to his
the room looks, but for the ‘wow’ the owners feel in assignments.
knowing that they have finally built a space devoted
to their love of collecting wine,” he says. “Being a part “There’s a lot of science behind how to store wine
of that is important. It’s not really about how great and some important factors to consider when you’re
the racking or the room looks.” going to age wine in a temperature-controlled space
for many years,” he says. “There are three main
STUMBLING ON A SPECIALTY things that are enemies of wine — light, vibration and
Hogeback first became interested in woodworking odor. I found that a lot of redwood racks that were
in high school shop class. He began a woodworking put in wine cellars had been stained and lacquered.

CABINET MAKERS ASSOCIATION 15