At Home in the Wine Country: Architecture & Design in the California Vineyards At Home in the Wine Country: Architecture & Design in the California Vineyards Hardcover

Modern Agrarian

Set on the valley floor in the heart of Napa Valley, the 4.2-acre property is surrounded on all sides by vineyards and graced with a mixture of native oaks, redwoods, walnut trees and previously planted palms. Working closely with landscape architects Lutsko Associates on the master plan, the team at Pfau Long devised a cluster of buildings set amid the rural landscape. An early key decision to realign the entry road enables visitors to enter the site through the existing redwood grove, winding through trees until the house and property reveal themselves all at once. A second reveal awaits at the entry, where double-height slatted cedar barn doors slide open to unveil a transparent double-height entry foyer and the full scope of the valley views. In a valley filled with picture-perfect vistas and “wow” moments, this sequence stands apart.

Recreation & Renewal

A vintage barn and ancient oak tree provided the inspiration and design cues for a mid Napa Valley estate set amidst Zinfandel vines. The oak served as the site plan’s organizing principle, the barn the form for a new structure that would serve as guesthouse, gathering spot, and destination. Designer Penny Shawback of Shawback Design assembled a team—Field Architecture, Grassi & Associates contracting, and Surfacedesign landscape

architects—to craft a wine country idyll comprised of a main house, garage, pool, tennis court, firepit and barn. The historic barn was reclaimed for furniture and other uses, while its form was extended to house the vintage tractor and pickup truck the owners inherited with the property.

Nestled in Nature

The drama of the site is evident from the moment of arrival. The low central volume housing the public rooms is clad in stone and vertical stained cedar boards and topped with a standing-seam metal roof, yet it conveys a sense of transparency fostered by a wide span of sliding glass doors on both sides. These, whether open or closed, allow unimpeded views through the house and across Sonoma Valley to the mountains beyond. Despite the promise inherent in the 1,000 bottle wine library in the foyer, the home is as much about the outdoors as the indoors, with full immersion in nature experienced from every room.

Woodland Farmhouse

It was the approach that sold him. Despite being located off a busy north-south artery close to Sonoma’s historic square, the long, gently meandering lane was pure country. Bordered by grapevines and a horse farm, it was lined with madrone and live oaks whose moss-covered trunks arched over in places to create a tunnel effect. Angus and Rossi Scott had been searching for the perfect country property for five years, and Angus had visited property on that same access road some years prior. He knew what they were looking for. Which is why, within minutes of the broker telling him about the ten-acre parcel, Angus made an offer, sight unseen.