Winery & Vineyards

With our office located in the heart of Sonoma County, we are surrounded by some of the world's finest vineyards and wineries. Brelje & Race offers a unique combination of staff with both civil engineering expertise and actual professional winemaking experience to assist and guide you through the complex set of regulations and facilities design issues that face wineries throughout California. We understand that operating a profitable winery and vineyard is a demanding job. We focus on optimizing land use and facilities performance to make your job easier. 

Process Wastewater
Our experience with winery process wastewater treatment stretches back over 30 years. During that time we have examined numerous approaches to effective treatment of high strength wastewater making us well equipped to evaluate your particular site and production practices and to design a system that best suits your needs. Brelje & Race engineers realize that in the wastewater realm, the goal for most wineries is to have a system that occupies a minimum amount of land and provides maximum treatment effectiveness. Whether you are planning a brand new facility or would like to optimize or troubleshoot an existing system, we are ready to help.

Winery Site Development
Site development for wineries involves civil engineering criteria similar to that addressed by other types of development projects - base topographic mapping, site grading, utilities, traffic circulation, parking, access roads, hydrology, storm water drainage and erosion control. Brelje & Race has proven expertise in the site development arena that allows us to efficiently develop solutions for any challenge associated with your winery or vineyard site.

Permitting
In most cases, establishing a new winery or adding to an existing one requires one or more permits from a variety of public agencies. Brelje & Race can assist winery owners with permit acquisition through our network of established relationships within these agencies. We are able to structure your application, prepare attachments and arrange for the timely attention by the multitude of agency staff to make permit issuance as smooth as possible. We also have a wealth of experience with the processes necessary to clear any conditions of compliance associated with your permit. Permits can be a headache - allow us to minimize your pain.

Water
Water availability and quality are of paramount importance to any winery and vineyard operation. Brelje & Race has provided wineries with a wide range of solutions to ground and surface water supply problems. We have successfully addressed problems related to bacteriological contamination, iron, manganese, salinity, chlorine, pumping, storage and distribution. We welcome any questions you might have regarding water for wine production, vineyard irrigation or public consumption.