Established by Georges de Latour with a vision of making wines that could rival those of his native France, the iconic Beaulieu Vineyard traces its history to the first year of the 20th century, when Georges’ wife Fernande laid eyes on the original Rutherford vineyard and declared “quelle beau lieu,” or “what a beautiful place.” Our goal for the reimagined Beaulieu Vineyard property was to bring back this sense of beauty, wonder and history with a design that honors the winery’s long history and reflects its essential role in both the past and future of the Napa Valley.

Historic photographs show a winery built of stone with twin gables, an elegantly simple structure suited to both its purpose and its place. Over the many decades since the winery was first constructed, the original structures underwent numerous changes, reflecting the winery’s growth, as well as the varied and evolving vision of numerous proprietors. In progressive stages, the original stone buildings were obscured on each side by new structures built of cinder block, concrete, and steel. Production capacity grew, an original gable was removed, a tower was added, and the adjacent Highway 29 became progressively busier and more highly trafficked.

The new, renovated property provides a variety of wine tasting experiences – both grand and intimate – that capture the history and essence of the property, while creating a luxury hospitality experience to match its legacy. The design concept achieves these goals by focusing on three objectives: reveal and celebrate the stone buildings that tell the story of the winery’s origins, create a visitor experience that reflects the dynamic coexistence of past and future, and devise a visitor journey that is simultaneously reconnected with the adjacent vineyards and shielded from the traffic on the adjacent Highway 29. 

A new entry, rerouted to create a more gracious approach, draws visitors along the adjacent vineyards to guest parking to the north of the winery. Buildings to the north and east, which were added in the 1930s and 1940s, were removed to reveal the historic stone structures and create a new pedestrian entry through a landscaped arrival courtyard, forming a graceful entry sequence shielded from the adjacent roadway by stone walls. A reception area, set within the northern building, is flanked by direct-to-consumer offices to the west and a floating stair to the east. Memorabilia from 126 years of winemaking fills the walls.

The second of the two original gables has been restored to its original shape, its roof peeled back to allow the reinforced stone walls to stand on their own and become the vessel for a new open-air tasting courtyard. In a dramatic juxtaposition, a contemporary tasting room is set into the rear portion of the courtyard, separated by a wall of glass, one space blurring into the other. A second-level club terrace overlooks the main guest tasting room.

At its core, the renovation of Beaulieu Vineyards is an act of revival –  a long-term commitment to the history and future of the Napa Valley. Restoring the winery’s original structures and adapting them for contemporary use is an inherently sustainable approach to the redesign, as it captures and repurposes the energy embodied in the historic structures. In addition to restoring and reusing existing structures, the team enhanced the sustainability of the project by diverting materials from dismantled structures for reuse, installing a large solar array to meet a majority of the winery’s energy needs, maximizing the use of natural daylighting, and planting native and drought-tolerant landscape.