14 DIGS.NET | 3.25.2022
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P R O F I L E | C L AY T O N K O R T E
INE, FROM ITS earliest days, required the storage of its age,
with solutions both inelegant and sophisticated. The
Egyptians had mud-bricked and limestone cellars, the
Romans fumitories and catacombs, the Italians dami-
giana. While the French were one of the first cultures to
intentionally dig wine caves for the purpose of storage,
recognizing the crucial precedents of protecting wine from fluc-
tuating temperature changes, unwanted vibration, and harmful
ultraviolet light exposure, they were hardly the last. Architectural
firm Clayton Korte is one of the latest contributors to the category
with its intelligent, highly contextual Hill Country Wine Cave.
Embedded into a hillside, deep in the heart of Texas, Hill Country
Wine Cave is, as a work of architecture, illustrative of Clayton
Korte as an architecture firm, one whose raft of hospitality
projects include a number of wine-related designs. "To some
w