The Oosterhouse brothers, Todd and Carter are Traverse City natives who decided to satisfy a life-long dream building a winery of their own. The energy-efficient Bonobo Winery built with BuildBlock ICFs combines many systems and technologies to deliver a commercial success.

This project is located in Traverse City Michigan, a tourist destination and regional area of commerce. People flock to the area in the spring, summer, and fall to see the lakes, sunsets, cherry trees and vineyards. This winery has a high traffic volume will help educate more people about the advantages of energy efficient construction and BuildBlock ICF technology, especially in the wine industry.

Some wineries have a production facility that is separate from the tasting room and public side of the winery. Bonobo brings both together with an event center and small restaurant. To do this, the structure needed to be cost-effective and energy efficient. The most important room in the winery is the barrel room. The barrel room and production facility are the major reasons they chose to build ICF. The barrel room is a 2,000 square foot room on the lower level in the south-west section of the winery. The long outside wall in this room faces west and really gets pounded in the summer from the sun, and also from the fierce wind off Lake Michigan in the winter.

With a background in green construction and remodeling, they were convinced that whatever they built needed to be as energy efficient as possible. This is not only to keep costs low, but also to be able to create a consistent product.

“We wanted everything to be Energy efficient, energy conscience, and low waste. When it came to choosing the ICFs, BuildBlock provided the least amount of waste on the project. ICFs have far less waste compared to wood because there are not as many costly wood cuts also, BuildBlock had the characteristics of low maintenance and the blocks fit together nicely. BuildBlock was easy to use and it was easy to work with the company itself when it came to customer service.” – Todd Oosterhouse,owner 

The winery’s upper level is the tasting/lounge area with comfortable seating areas, a small restaurant, and event center. The entire lower level of the winery houses office space, wine production, bottling and the storage. The production facility is the heart of the winery, everything from bottling to harvesting and storing the wine barrels. The wine is stored on the west side of the building where the ICFs were used. The ICFs aid in the constant temperature needed for storing wine correctly while also managing humidity levels.

The overall look of the winery is quite impressive with an open floor plan, comfortable surroundings with a large viewing deck constructed to get the perfect view of the vineyard, cherry trees and the lake. The lower level is clean and bright. The barrel room is tastefully decorated and one of the largest open spaces in the facility.

From an industry perspective, this could be a major break in the processes of storing wine. ICFs are perfect to maintain the atmosphere, temperature and humidity controls to age wine. Accomplishing this while also reducing production costs and costly energy bills is something everyone can drink to.

The project was completed on time and on budget. In its year it has been very popular and is constantly busy. Highly visible from the road and in an excellent location on the peninsula it continues to cause attraction and press coverage. The HGTV connection certainly helps, but a solid bottle of wine backs up its growing reputation. Carter Oosterhouse can been seen on HGTV programs such as Row House Showdown, Million Dollar Kitchens and Baths, and more.

To learn more about this amazing company click on the following link to visit their website https://bonobowinery.com/

Bonobo Winery Video Series

Bonobo Winery Photo Gallery