When Ryan and Kara Gorney purchased their home on Via San Angelo in 2016, it had been on and off the market for five years and needed a lot of work.  However, the couple was attracted to the neighborhood and contemporary style of the home and saw a lot of potential in the property.  So they undertook a renovation of the home that included building a wine cellar.

“We saw an opportunity to transform a large hallway between our basement entertainment area and my home office,” explained Ryan.  “We turned it into a combination wine and whiskey cellar.  The cellar wall backs into the garage, which created an opportunity for proper HVAC configuration as well.”

Helping Ryan with the HVAC was fellow Red Tail resident, Tim Obsitnick, who helped Ryan think through the insulation and internal configuration of the system, as Tim has a fantastic cellar himself, which he completed several years before the Gorney’s built their cellar. The system that Ryan installed is the WhisperKool EX5000TI, which keeps the room at 57 degrees.

The Gorney’s describe their wine cellar as a combination of contemporary and rustic stone and wood features. “What’s interesting about the space,” said Ryan, “is that it’s the smallest room in the basement; however, it’s where everyone ends up during a party.  It has great acoustics, so I like to play Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Rosemary Clooney, and other artists while in there.”

The cellar also features some photos honoring Ryan’s grandparents and great-aunt who served in WWII.  He says his great-aunt taught him how to mix drinks when he was young. “She was full of life and lived every day to the fullest,” he recalls.

The Gorney wine cellar has a capacity of 250 bottles. Currently, Ryan says they have about 100 bottles of wine stored.  The other side of the cellar holds various whiskeys – bourbon, scotch, and Irish – along with various vodkas, his favorite being a unique series from Poland called Chopin Single.

Ryan’s favorite winery is Crocker & Starr.  “Not only is their wine great, but I have gotten to know the winemaker and the president.  They are fantastic people with an incredible story.” Ryan especially likes their Cabernet Franc made with grapes grown in Napa. 

He also has a number of vintages from 2022, which appears to have been a good year. “I am aging some of these bottles to see how they turn out in the future.”