Our challenge for this project was to create a production winery that personified the feminine qualities of the Stag's Leap AVA, while also achieving a high level of sustainability on a limited budget.
Odette Winery is named after pivotal female characters in the works of Shakespeare and Proust, and the swan princess in Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake. Early in the design process, we began calling them the “three ladies.” Starting with a sketch of an evening gown, that concept evolved into the swaying female shapes that symbolize Odette – in the logo, on the winery screens, in the pattern on the concrete of the crush pad, in the curve of the winery roofline and, most recently, in three statues set within the vineyards. The sinuous curves of nearly every architectural element reflect that feminine inspiration.
We set the production winery into a notch in the hillside behind the existing winery, topping the the curved structure with a living roof and 2,500 square feet of solar panels. Three repurposed shipping containers serve as offices and labs within the open air space behind the screen. Staggered and painted orange, they are weather-tight and efficient. The winery production facility was certified LEED Gold by the USGBC in 2017.
The biggest challenge in the design process was the winery’s western exposure. We devised a perforated screen, layered with the flowing shapes of the three ladies. Though small, the winery is fully visible from the Silverado Trail. The defining symbol for the winery has became the property’s most iconic image: a screen illuminated at night with the undulating forms of the three Odettes.
True to the story of Odette, the swan princess in Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake, the walls of the new portal at Odette Estate evoke the sweeping curve of a swan’s wing, wrapping each visitor to the winery caves in their embrace.
The new portal to the wine cave at Odette Estate sits near the entry to the estate’s tasting room, and is an integral part of the visitors’ winery experience. True to the story of Odette, the swan princess in Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake, the walls of the new portal evoke the sweeping curve of a swan’s wing. In our design process, we studied the the shapes of a swan’s wings, and found the same curve echoed in both an embrace and in the act of taking off in flight.
To build out our vision for the portal, we removed the existing linear retaining wall, which disrupted the curvature of the hillside, and restored the natural grade. The new curved walls stabilize the hillside minimize the cave’s impact on the land, while embracing our overall design concept. Crafted from shotcrete stained a dark charcoal, the walls mimic the walls of the production winery nearby.
We added a second cave entry directly adjacent to the original entry. The side-by-side entry doors now lead to two separate caves: the original cave, now used for hospitality, and a new cave leading to the production winery. The two doors are split by a perforated metal screen – a direct reference to the production winery’s sliding screens – which ventilates the tunnels and is dramatically backlit at night.
