Ponder Estate

'Ponder Estate Vineyard'
A 200 year old, 712 gallon, 1,500 lb. wine cask carved to depict a combination of the Ponder Estate wine label and it's Malibu, CA. location. Contacted by e-mail in May, 2003, I finally located a large oval wine cask in good condition requested by Mr. Ponder. In September, 2003, it was wrestled from Santa Rosa, CA to my mountaintop in Mendocino County. Being too large for my shop door, I had to construct a makeshift tent over the cask in preparation for the coming winter. The carving surface was over six feet tall by four feet wide and took over three months to carve. It's now located in the newly constructed Ponder Estate Winery in Marshall, TX.

The outside of the barrel was also stripped, re-varnished and the hoops were sanded, primed and painted in flat black. The stand (or yokes) that came with the wine cask didn't match, so for display purposes, a new set had to be made.