10 West Coast Wineries With Architecture as Noteworthy as the Wines They Produce
A weekend away at a vineyard doesn't have to be just about the wine tasting—rather, it should be an opportunity to escape to a beautiful destination complete with impressive modern architecture. So, whether you're a fan of a full-bodied pinot noir, a zesty chardonnay, or just great design, these modern wineries on the West Coast will soon be on your "go-to" list.
Ashes & Diamonds
Location: Napa, California
Architecture: Barbara Bestor
Inspired by the iconic, modern architecture of Albert Frey and Donald Wexler, Ashes & Diamonds winery is a bright, white, geometric display that marks the cinematic valley landscape of rolling hills and vineyard rows. The winery consists of two rectangular buildings: A two-level wine production facility with an industrial aesthetic and large portholes that reference works by Frey, and a smaller, single-level, stucco-clad tasting room topped with a folded-plate, pavilion-style canopy that mirrors the valley hills and mitigates sunlight.
The tasting room is shaded by a folded-plate canopy that recalls the modernist designs of architect Donald Wexler.
The interior of the tasting room is outfitted with Eero Saarinen-designed chairs, North African rugs, Douglas fir siding, and a terrazzo floor.
An aerial view of the Ashes & Diamonds winery and tasting room.
Located 45 minutes from Portland on a picturesque 23 acres, L'Angolo Estate is a family-owned winery that was designed by Portland-based Lever Architecture and completed in 2016. The firm tackled their first winery by creating a sleek and modern tasting room experience that embodies the family’s minimalist approach to winemaking.
Set at the top of the vineyard, the tasting room opens up to the valley with a structural glazing system that provides guests with stunning panoramic views.
The design takes cues from the vernacular architecture of the Willamette Valley.
Inspired by the canopied, native oak trees that populate the valley, two cantilevered roof structures interlock at the tasting room's entryway. The material palette is limited to Douglas fir, cedar siding, and dark anodized aluminum.
Two large sliding doors centered with the tasting room bar bring the vineyard into the space, while also serving as a passive cooling system in the summer when used in tandem with the upper clerestory windows.
San Francisco–based firm Piechota Architecture created a net-positive water tasting room and production facility for the small, family-owned Silver Oak winery in Alexander Valley. Water—which plays a key role in wine production—also figures prominently in the design, with a large, rectangular reflecting pool that cuts its way through the black, barn-like tasting room. Clad in wood siding repurposed from 100-year-old wine tanks from Cherokee Winery (and salvaged by Robert Mondavi, a Napa Valley pioneer winery), the wood-and-steel material palette of the wine cellar references the construction of a wine barrel.
The barn-like forms make a stark, simple silhouette against the landscape. Rooftop solar panels helped the project earn LEED platinum certification.
The mix of wood and steel references the construction of a wine barrel. A long rectangular reflecting pool runs the length of the tasting room.
The indoor/outdoor structure embraces the wine-making process and provides a strong sense of space. The exterior wood is repurposed 100-year-old wine tanks.
To create Furioso Vineyards, Portland–based Waechter Architecture renovated and expanded a pre-existing winery and added a new tasting room with additional public amenities. Located in the heart of Oregon’s wine country, the original Furioso estate was made up of "a series of disconnected utilitarian structures scattered across its property," including a steel-shed winery, various storage facilities, an outdoor crush pad, and an adjacent residence—all of which lacked an overall identity. Waechter sought to unify the vineyard and refocus buildings to heighten vistors' experience of the surrounding landscape and the wine-making process.
The new tasting room is positioned to feel as if it is hovering above and within the vineyard. Open on all sides, it offers panoramic views of the surrounding hills.
Waechter Architecture expanded and re-clad the existing winery with a vertical 2" x 2" blackened cedar screen. During the day, the body of the building takes on a solid appearance. At night, the screen takes on an ethereal, translucent character as interior illumination backlights the vertical cedar ribs.
The Sokol Blosser family, one of the founders of Oregon’s wine-making industry, has been producing pinot noir, pinot gris, and other varietals since 1978. When the winery commissioned Allied Works to design a new tasting room and event space for the 100-acre estate, they devised a structure composed of three interconnected volumes to showcase the surrounding landscape and spectacular views of the Yamhill Valley. The new tasting room incorporates a number of green features and is the first winery in the U.S. designed to comply with the key components of the Living Building Challenge.
The building is unified by striated wood cladding that presents a new, organic architectural form inspired by the vineyard's rows and the region's vernacular wood agricultural buildings.
A main tasting room occupies the center of the new building and includes a bar, outdoor terrace, seating area, and hearth. A library and kitchen flank the tasting room and offer a range of spaces for gathering and wine tasting.
Located in Napa Valley, Quintessa, a family-run vineyard, turned to Walker Warner Architects to create modern wine tasting pavilions that blend in with the bucolic California landscape. They wanted the structures to offer protection from the sun, wind, and heat without disturbing the land or coming between the visitor and the vineyard. Walker Warner Architects' response was a series of three 250-square-foot open-air structures, set amongst the oak trees overlooking the vineyard-covered hills and the lake beyond.
Quintessa Winery has a commitment to creating modern architecture that complements rather than competes with the landscape.
Carefully selected materials make the building appear as if it grew from the land. Environmentally sensitive finishes echo the existing winery, which the firm designed in 2002.
But onto the real question: The pavilion is a definite delight to the eyes, but does it make the wine more tasty? "Absolutely!" Warner and McCabe assert. "Each pavilion is elegantly unobtrusive and offers a rustic yet refined experience evocative of picnicking with a bottle of wine under an oak tree. In this way, the pavilions serve to bring the visitor a greater depth of understanding and appreciation for the place where Quintessa is made and the process that creates its uniquely sophisticated character."
Situated on a 55-acre site with full panoramic views of the breathtaking countryside, Law Estates Wines' architecture reflects the wine-making characteristics that distinguish them from other producers in the Paso Robles region. Much like their focus on showcasing the natural characteristics of each varietal and the specific territory in which they were grown, the minimalist building responds directly to the natural materials of the site, its hillside topography, and the climatic influences of the sun and wind.
The design is contextually modern and expressive of the various functions contained within the winery.
BAR Architects designed the winery using Scott Hawley’s wine-making concepts and a clean and contemporary aesthetic.
The design is focused on unobstructed views of the estate's vineyard, along with a simple process flow for its handcrafted approach to wine making.
Designed by Juancarlos Fernandez of Signum Architecture, the tasting room for the BRAND winery creates a striking silhouette. Simple and unadorned, the corrugated-metal building is set atop tall concrete foundation walls, with a welcoming, wrap-around porch to shelter guests from the hot summer sun and winter rains that are characteristic of California's Napa Valley. Inside, exposed wood beams soften and warm the space, creating a lodge-like atmosphere.
Eschewing the typical white barn vernacular commonly found throughout Napa Valley, Fernandez turned to the rustic architectural traditions of western mining communities for inspiration.
Steep roofs and tall internal spaces evoke a barn-like simplicity and facilitate an efficient, multi-level design.
A wrap-around porch shelters visitors from the hot summer sun and protects from the winter rains that are characteristic of Napa Valley.
Private and difficult to visit, Dominus Estate has also been dubbed "the stealth winery," as the structure is barely discernible from the foothills and vineyards. Completed in 1997, Dominus Estate was the first U.S. project designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog + De Meuron. The structure draws more inspiration from Miesian modernism and brutalist influences than traditional winery architecture.
Herzog + de Meuron used a variety of industrial materials throughout Dominus Estate. After ascending the stairwell to the second level, one is met by brutalist, concrete floors, a wire-mesh ceiling, floor-to-ceiling glass, and sunlight that shines through the gabions. A varnished-wood handrail contrasts with the metal, stone, and glass, adding warmth to the otherwise cool setting.
Upon entering the winery, visitors are met with a minimalist hall and an unobstructed route through the structure.
Proprietor Anthony von Mandl's latest project is a newly opened winery in British Columbia. Tucked into a steep hillside in the Okanagan Valley—which has the lowest rainfall of any wine-producing region in the world—the architecturally stunning Martin’s Lane was designed by Seattle-based Olson Kundig and boasts a dramatic structure made of glass, steel, and concrete.
The dramatic structure fits seamlessly into the stunning landscape.
The winery is a testament to proprietor Anthony von Mandl’s commitment to the local Okanagan region.
Martin’s Lane is a "gravity flow" winery designed on different levels to allow wine to flow—rather than be pumped—from one stage of the production process to the next, extracting color, flavor, and tannin from the grape skins.
Related Reading: The Stealth Winery, 10 Rentable Homes in the World's Best Wine Regions
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