NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. — Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc. recently celebrated the official groundbreaking for its new retail and wine-tasting facility in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Members of the Niagara wine industry and local dignitaries — including Lord Mayor Pat Darte of Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Falls MPP, Wayne Gates — attended the ceremony on Oct. 12 on the Diamond Estates property in the heart of Niagara wine country.
“We are very excited to officially kick-off this next wave of growth for the winery” says Murray Souter, president and CEO of Diamond Estates. “We are thrilled to see our vision of a state-of-the-art tasting facility come to life. Our brands are amongst the most popular VQA wines in Ontario and our exciting new space will hopefully become an equally popular destination for our customers, where we can continue to share our knowledge, expertise and love of wine with our guests in an inviting place.”
The new 3,000-sq.-ft. facility — designed by Curran Architects Inc. — is slated for a spring-2017 opening to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the company’s Lakeview Cellars brand. It will feature 28-ft. and 22-ft. marble tasting bars, surrounded by continuous floor-to-ceiling glass windows that provide an undivided view of the vineyard. The building’s exterior will feature a Japanese technique, Shou Sugi Ban, to create a charred cedar look.
“The building form is simple but powerful,” says Bill Curran, lead architect for the project. “Conceptually, the building will create a unique sense of place, maximizing impact with rich, textured materials such as exposed wood beams and steel columns. This project highlights the natural landscape and — combined with our attention to detail in design — will create a building amongst the vines that is decidedly modern, as well as warm and inviting.”
