The new Sullivan Rutherford Estate winery building is designed to be one of the great tasting experiences in the Napa valley. ​ Building off the historic residence, barn and site plan by John Marsh Davis, the new structure brings the wood frames and trellises of those buildings into an iconic statement for the future. The wine making facility – which is interwoven with the tasting rooms that overlook each aspect of the process – blends state of the art tools and techniques with traditional gravity fed crushing and maceration of the grapes and cellar aging in oak barrels to express the incredible terroir of the site as exquisitely as possible.

The symmetrically curved form of the new building is a contemporary reimagining of the classical European chateaux, providing a commanding view across the vineyards and the valley beyond. ​ The tapered ​ geometry also keeps the edge of the building closest to the existing structures lower, opening up the broad views to the South while maintaining privacy for the residents of the estate house to the North.

The winery features three distinct tasting rooms – each tied to a key moment in the transformation of grapes to wine. ​ A central tasting room perched above the axial entry allows a front-row seat to the drama of harvest where grapes are sorted and fed into the tanks lining the fermentation hall while a tasting room deep below ground overlooks a grand display of wine soaked oak barrels marching off in curving rows into the dim light of the cellar. Lastly, the largest gathering space of all perches guests high above the vines to enjoy an indoor-outdoor experience that changes with the seasons as the grapes bud, grow and get picked. ​ Through bold forms and an unmistakable sense of place, each visit will be as memorable as the vintage that pairs with it.