The finest new home for

The finest new home for The Fancy Cow

Words: Adrienne Matthews | Sarah Brown

Vintner Ant Moore is as passionate about wine as he is about the Marlborough region, and he has dreamed about building a cellar door for as long as he can remember. Now that dream is a reality with The Fancy Cow at 309 Rapaura Road.

The magnificent new building on Rapaura Road houses not only a cellar door featuring eight to ten vineyards, but also restaurant, brewery and tap room, laboratories, offices, private dining and conference facilities.

A number of ideas for its features were gleaned during Ant’s travels to the wine regions of the world. “I wanted to build something that is fun, can appeal to everyone with a restaurant and cellar door, that is open for lunch and dinner while offering the opportunity for tasting some of the best wines and beers Marlborough has to offer,” he says. “I wanted the building to be constructed of a combination of timber and steel, echoing where wine comes from and linking it all back to the earth,” says Ant. “It had to be built to a very high quality, be classy, but warm and not pretentious.” As architect Simon Hall of Jerram Tocker Barron Architects Ltd explains further, “The building needed to reflect the industrial and mechanical processes associated with the commercial wine-making and brewing operations on site while using natural sustainable materials in innovative and creative ways.” Remarkably, the main construction material – timber, was procured within a one-hundred-kilometre radius of the site. The building is described by Simon as a “mass timber building with a timber structure, timber floors, large timber portals and a timber roof.” It is the first commercial building in Marlborough to be fabricated using the Potius™ engineered timber panel system, an innovative kiwi invention using (LVL) laminated veneer lumber produced in the Top of the South, prefabricated into building elements that is a long-span and lightweight alternative to conventional roof structures and flooring.

As a result, most of the building could be made off-site in ten pre-assembled modules which, when delivered, were quickly put together with a crane, speeding up the construction process. John Tovey of Scott Construction worked with Ant and the building’s designers for several years on the project, pre-build. “We worked under the early contractor involvement model (ECI),” he explains, “which allowed us to be part of the design and planning process and to use the contractors we knew would do an outstanding job.” With so many different spaces in one building, it was important to make each as dynamic as the other. A striking feature in the large open restaurant are the wall panels, constructed from timber felled on Ant’s property, which was kiln dried and machined and formed into sheet boarding. It was then painted with an iron paint incorporating iron filings that produces a rusted earth effect. Large fireplaces inside and out add character.

The two-storey structure is the height of a threestoried building, with magnificent views from the mezzanine floor across expanses of vineyards to the hills beyond. It is also here where the attention paid to the landscaping can be appreciated, inspired by the underlying terraferma. “There is a strong reference to the ancient braided rivers that once flowed through here,” says Simon. “The micro landscaping is designed to pick up on the macro.” This is also referenced in the curve of the corten steel at the entrance. “I first saw this idea at an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain,” says Ant, “and knew I wanted it somewhere.” Constructed on a concrete slab, The Fancy Cow is designed to be a comfortable temperature all year round. Multiple windows allow for ventilation in the hotter months while the sun provides thermal gain in the cooler parts of the year. Underfloor heating in the concrete slab provides the ideal environmental solution to keep the building temperate in winter. The Fancy Cow’s opening induced a huge sense of pride for everyone involved in its design and construction. “It was a marvellous project for both our experienced builders and our apprentices,” says John. “Up to ten builders worked on the site and they loved all the timber work with its high-level architectural and technical aspects”. “The biggest challenge was the way covid impacted on the supply chain,” he says. “The shortage of plasterboard was something we had to manage very carefully. Miraculously we managed to juggle the build so we were able to continue working on site regardless.” Andre Beneke, the general manager of hospitality at The Fancy Cow, is revelling in the completed building. “It is completely different from anything else in the Marlborough area and right up with the best venues I have seen in my many years working in international hospitality,” he says. “It has a wonderful flow and a great energy. The circular bar is excellent to work in and people are loving the open commercial kitchen, complete with enormous Italian pizza oven. So many boundaries have been pushed and the latest technologies employed to really make this a unique destination for locals and visitors to the region.” And as for the venue’s name? The Fancy Cow is named after Ant’s miniature highland cow.