Story by Hailey Wist
Across all seven communities, it shapes the social calendar, informs the dinner table, and gives members a shared vocabulary for gathering. That culture has its own infrastructure—wine dinners, cellar programs, weekly happy hours. At the center of it is the Wine Consortium, a program that pools collective buying power to source bottles at prices individual buyers rarely access, sometimes as much as 40 percent below retail. Everyday drinking wines sit alongside rare vintages and highly allocated bottles that require relationships most consumers simply do not have.
Overseeing the program is Sian Smart, a hospitality veteran originally from England with more than two decades of experience in the industry. She functions as the connective tissue between the seven distinct communities at The Cliffs, its national network of distributors, and the members themselves. She is equal parts buyer, broker, and resource. “The goal is to source the best deals at great value,” she says, “so they’re getting a better deal than they could get anywhere else.” Members place requests across the full spectrum: a reliable case for the weekend, a specific producer encountered on a trip abroad, a bottle significant enough to warrant proper cellaring. Smart handles all of it.
What distinguishes the Consortium from a simple buying club is its attentiveness to the individual. Wine is delivered directly to each community, available for pickup at the member’s convenience, with no minimums and no friction. For those who arrive at The Cliffs with established cellars and strong opinions, it is a procurement tool. For those still developing their palates, it is something more valuable—sustained access to knowledge, context, and bottles that reward attention.
On a June evening at The Cliffs at Mountain Park, the founder of Flâneur Wines, Marty Doerschlag, sat down with forty members and walked them through five courses, each paired with a wine from his Oregon estate. He talked about the soil, the climate, and how a nearby wildfire had shaped a particular vintage. It was, by any measure, an exceptional evening.
Someone did their homework. They had me out of my comfort zone! It was a home run.
- Scott Smith
This is what a wine dinner at The Cliffs looks like. They happen on a rotating basis across all seven communities, and the members who love wine tend to follow them from one to the next. The kitchens take the pairing as seriously as the winemaker takes the vintage. “I’ve been to a number of Michelin-star restaurants,” says member Scott Smith. “I would say that was Michelin-star worthy.”
The chefs always come up with something very creative. We’ve been blown away with the quality and creativity of the food.
- Dana Ward
But the dinners are as much about the people as the wine. Members consistently describe arriving as strangers and leaving as friends. “It’s almost like sitting at a table with good friends and friends you haven’t met yet,” Smith says. Bruce Butcher puts it simply: “Sometimes you make some good friendships out of that.”
Dr. Mark and Tammy Miles
The Cliffs at Glassy
THE DESIGN
Inspired by French cellars. Two woods throughout—American black walnut for the doors, window frames, and countertops, and mahogany for the wine racks. Custom handmade bricks on the back wall. The walnut was harvested from the Miles family farm in Glenn Springs, South Carolina.
THE DETAIL THAT MATTERS MOST
The cellar door, handcrafted from that same family walnut. “The American black walnut is contrasted with the rest of the wood.”
CAPACITY
Approximately 1,000 bottles
CELLAR BUILT
2021
THE COLLECTION
Walla Walla Valley and Italian reds, particularly northern Piedmont blends, are the foundation. Mark’s personal obsession is large-format champagne. Magnums and beyond.
THE PHILOSOPHY
“The Cellar was built to share with all of our friends who love wine like we do.”
Dan and Gay Balogh
The Cliffs at Mountain Park
THE ORIGIN STORY
Dan and Gay kept a journal for years—photographs, clippings, notes—of every cellar detail they admired. They handed it to their architect and, one set of drawings later, had their design. He worked mostly from Dan’s notes.
CAPACITY
2,500 bottles
CELLAR BUILT
2015
THE COLLECTION
Heavy on Napa, but also French, Italian, Spanish, Washington State, and Willamette Valley.
THE SPACE
Built from Honduran mahogany, backlit, fragrant. Three walls are cut a foot into the ridge the house sits on, keeping the temperature a steady 55 degrees.
BEYOND THE CELLAR
The lower level of the home was designed to entertain. Adjacent to the cellar is a tasting room with an Italian feel, its splash wall covered in corks from bottles over the years.
FAVORITE BOTTLE
“People ask me that a lot. My answer is always the one I am drinking.”
Dana and Ken Bunney
The Cliffs at Glassy
THE INSPIRATION
An old issue of Cliffs Living magazine with a photograph of a refrigerated wine wall.
THE SPACE
Two fully refrigerated walls facing each other, a custom barrel-vaulted brick ceiling eight feet high, and a handmade table that seats eight in the center.
THE CULTURE
Dana and Ken have deepened their knowledge steadily over the years, from Washington State wineries where they became members, to California, to France. The cellar has grown with their palates.
CAPACITY
Approximately 1,000 bottles
CELLAR BUILT
2023
HOW THEY USE IT
Cards, family games, wine dinners, friends stopping by after dinner.
THE PHILOSOPHY
“It’s over-the-top beautiful. We wanted it to be something we use all the time.”
Mike and Brenda Schultz
The Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards
THE ORIGIN
Mike and Brenda had a cellar at their Atlanta home. When they sold it and bought the lake house, the wine needed somewhere to go. A tool room next to the downstairs garage made the most sense.
THE SPACE
Travertine floors and marble walls extend into an adjoining kitchenette, the same materials throughout. Brenda custom designed it all, including the chandelier. There are shawls for when the fifty-eight-degree temperature catches guests off guard.
CAPACITY
Approximately 2,400 bottles, plus a cigar humidor
CELLAR BUILT
2020
THE COLLECTION
Heavily weighted toward Napa, with France, Italy, and Australia represented. Most bottles come from wineries where they have met the owners or walked the property. They are still members of several Napa wine clubs.
THE CROWN JEWEL
An 18-liter bottle of Italics 2018 Proprietary Red from Italics Winegrowers that has since sold.
This story was featured in Cliffs Living magazine. To see more stories like this one and learn more about The Cliffs, subscribe here.
