After Burning Down in a Wildfire, This Napa Winery Was Rebuilt to Withstand Natural Disasters
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Of all the obstacles the wine industry faces—decreased consumption, competition from other beverages, tariffs, and supply chain issues—wildfires offer the most emergent threat to life and property and is the only one that requires immediate attention. Less than a month ago, the Point Fire in northern Sonoma County prompted the evacuation of more than 400 people, with 10 times that number on alert to leave at a moment’s notice. At the same time, a good part of the United States was trapped under a “heat dome” that heightened the risk of brush fires. Napa Valley has already had one fire this season; the Crystal Fire burned for three days the first week of June, covering a total of 60 acres between St. Helena and Calistoga and injuring four firefighters. In recent years infernos have ravaged wine country in Australia, Bordeaux, Napa, and Sonoma, with one of the most memorable being the Atlas Fire of October 2017, which burned more than 50,000 acres over 16 days, destroying almost 800 buildings and causing six deaths. Among the structural casualties was Signorello Estate, whose winery and tasting room were reduced to rubble, causing its owner to re-think the way wineries are built to prevent this from happening again.
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Signorello Estate’s brand-new Napa Valley winery is the most fire-, weather-, and future-proof winery the world has ever seen. After losing his original production facility, owner Ray Signorello Jr. decided to embark on a path to create a winery set to withstand any “act of God” that may come its way. And at Signorello’s new winery, its caves are a prototype for future winemaking facilities in potential disaster zones anywhere around the globe. “As the winery is built into a hillside, it has far less exposure to wildfires than a building that is fully exposed on four sides,” Signorello says. “The caves are unique in that they are fully waterproof, insulated, and refrigerated. The benefit is that we can keep the temperature to 55 degrees year-round with consistent humidity. The caves can be completely sealed off if needed in the event of fire, and the building would stay smoke-free.”
They’ve also buried the powerlines underground, and in addition to solar panels the estate has backup generators, so it operates entirely off the grid. Two on-site wells provide abundant water, and an additional 100,000-gallon water supply is equipped with fire pumps in case the worst-case scenario rears its ugly head one more time.
The 8,000-square-foot-plus fire-protected winery and 11,431-square-foot cave are set up for production and storage needs in both practical and extravagant terms, offering tasting areas that combine comfort, elegance, and style. The winery’s mostly underground position offers the highest level of futureproofing against climate change and fire challenges. Although no specialty contractors were required to complete the structure, consulting winemaker Celia Welch and winemaker Priyanka French were an integral part of the decision-making process every step of the way. “Priyanka and Celia’s input into the design was critical,” Signorello says. “While we wanted a beautiful winery, what was most important to us was that we had a world-class winemaking facility.”
In all honesty, from the outside the winery doesn’t really look like much; a prominent modernist water feature is its most impressive external detail. With its symmetrical windows and doors, Signorello appears most like a small roadside motel sans parking lot, and its placement into the hillside gives it the profile of the temporary tasting trailer that Signorello opened in the spring of 2018. That said, visitors are in for a surprise once they pass through the doors. All the talk about future-proofing and state-of-the-art tech gives one the expectation of something out of a science fiction film, like a futuristic research lab or orbiting space station, but the reality couldn’t be further from that image. The portion of the cave reserved for hospitality is made entirely of concrete and glass, with a gracefully arched ceiling and leather chairs arranged around a massive wood table. Glass walls showcase Signorello’s impressive library collection, which boasts large-format bottlings dating back to the 1980s and 1990s, including six-, nine-, and 18-liter showstoppers. Collectors will have a bird’s-eye view into another glass-enclosed cellar, which showcases Ray Signorello Jr.’s personal wine collection and a significant number of library Signorello bottlings.
Although the fire-proofing elements are not obvious or visible to visitors, the loss of the original winery and the planning that went into the rebuild, especially the emphasis on sustainability, “is very much part of our history and something that will be discussed during our tours and tastings,” Signorello says. Tastings begin with an electric cart tour of the estate vineyards, a large contiguous “monopole” planted with Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and other Bordeaux varieties that are cultivated using sustainable, organic, and regenerative farming practices. Tastings feature five wines, including Hope’s Cuvée Chardonnay and both current and older vintages of Signori Cabernet and Signorello’s flagship Cabernet Sauvignon, Padrone, paired with a curated cheese plate. Access to Ray Jr’s personal library wine collection—including special large formats dating back to Signorello’s first vintage—offers an experience that reveals the overall ageability of the wines and the evolution of the house style.
While this new space was under construction, winemaking was carried out at nearby Laird Family Estate. French, who left Signorello this month to focus on raising her two young children, says the current vintage, 2021, is “a welcome relief on the heels of a stressful 2020 vintage.” (Winemaker Michael Costley is taking French’s place.) A dry summer with no major heat spikes led to “near-perfect flavor development and concentration,” French tells Robb Report. “The resulting wines are well structured, showing power and the expression of fine quality tannins. The wines will continue their complexity over the next few decades.”
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