Cuvaison Estate Wines

Napa, California

Set on the top of a rise in the rolling hills of the Carneros AVA, Cuvaison Estate Wines provides an immersive experience of place within its vast vineyard property. Roche+Roche worked with architect Douglas Thornley, then of Gould Evans, to design a wine-making campus that places visitors squarely in the midst of the wine-making process, yet simultaneously allows them to feel visually and viscerally connected to the land.

Three adjacent structures house a production winery, barrel storage and offices, and a hospitality center. Roche+Roche conceived a straightforward plan for hardscape and landscape that would help tie the three buildings together. A covered breezeway and aluminum stair lead to a slate walkway lined with Platte’s Black New Zealand Flax, while Large Cape Rush bushes are used to visually screen the parking area from the offices.  Across the parking lot, a row of Swedish Aspen, underplanted with Berkeley Sedge, provides seasonal interest and creates a play of light and shadow on the corrugated metal building facade of the production building. Opposite entry to the tasting room, a series of board-formed concrete pilasters come together to create a seasonal water feature, as rainwater from the roof is channeled to fall between them, before continuing on to the storage pond. Slate paver terraces on two sides of the hospitality building are lined with low walls of board-formed concrete, which act as additional seating without detracting from the view.

Roche+Roche continues to work with Cuvaison Estate Wines and architect Douglas Thornley to design additional outdoor tasting experiences, including an expanded terrace, and individual tasting pavilions set along the edge of a rainwater storage and wildlife pond.

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Architecture:  Gould Evans Architects

Construction:  Ledcor Group

Landscape Construction:  Landesign, Inc.

Photography:  Eileen Roche Photography