West Sonoma Winery

Western Sonoma County is a scenic landscape of hills that roll east from the Sonoma Coast towards the Santa Rosa Plains. A local, family-owned winery with a philosophy of precise, non-interventionist winemaking to express the site of which it was grown.  The site is located at a bustling, industrial intersection with existing leach fields, wetlands, and an existing hillside cut creates an opportunity for an internalized response that evokes the local landscape while creating architectural discovery.

The Winery is set back 200’ from the adjacent highway to create a carved space for a meandering pedestrian path that bridges guests from the parking area to elevated tasting areas while blocking sound from the highway. A living roof sweeps over the building, and is cut and modulated to reveal spaces while controlling exposure to the sun. Second-level tasting areas welcome guests beneath the roof’s summit, creating a unique tasting experience within the hillside. 15,000 sf of fermentation, production, and barrel storage are put on display on one side through floor-to-ceiling storefront windows while being submerged into the hillside on the other, using the mass of the concrete roof and earth to help regulate the winery’s temperature.