Quixote Golden Onion Dome © Alice Joyce
A Napa Valley day-trip like no other in the Stags Leap District AVA : Beneath an azure winter sky, backed by the rugged outcropping of the Stags Leap palisades, a golden onion dome is a remarkable sight as we make our way up the drive to Quixote.
Quixote Winery Hundertwasser Design © Alice Joyce
Quixote Golden Entry Glazed Pillars © Alice Joyce
Quixote Winery – Hundertwasser Mosaic Wall © Alice Joyce
Quickly one discovers that here is a winery set apart by buoyant architecture! Quixote is the creation of ecologically-oriented, Viennese artist Hundertwasser (1928-2000): A unique building that’s a joy to behold, on a captivating site. What you see before you is a fully realized dream: The vision of the founder, Carl Doumani, was to build a winery given over to Hundertwasser’s exuberantly colorful art and organic forms.
Quixote Chandler Design Residence Pond
Hundertwasser’s design articulates the setting, flowing between the exterior and interior, where former owner Doumani’s artistic eye is revealed in a collection of art & furnishings on view. At Quixote, art gives rise to wine! Accolades from the Wine Spectator and Food and Wine laud the flavorful, full-bodied, finely-crafted Petite Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon produced at Quixote’s 27-acre, organically-farmed Stags’ Leap Ranch. Savor the wine at a tasting, in a celebratory atmosphere that look to Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as muse.
Taking in Hundertwasser’s compelling aesthetic, it’s fascinating to learn how the winery truly came to be built. I was fascinated to read the artist’s demands for adherence to each and every detail of his design aesthetic, revealed in exchanges that are fully documented in correspondence between Doumani, Hundertwasser, and his management spokesman: The resulting artistry shines ever so brightly in Napa.
Quixote Winery Stags Leap AVA © Alice Joyce
Landscape Design by Jack Chandler at Cornerstone, Sonoma.
Open by appointment: Phone ahead before setting out. A Napa destination that must be experienced.
I have never been – and probably never will be – a great fan of Hundertwasser, but knowing that his buildings exist somehow makes the world a more playful place. To me, the best example of his architecture will always be the Hundertwasser Kindertagesstätte; his love of shapes and colour seems the obvious choice for a house built for children. (I know, this was a bit of an aside, sorry.)