Offering Summary | Napa Valley Winery Estate

HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY

According to local lore, the house and barn were built circa 1890 by a prominent businessman for his mistress. The property was subsequently the home of a Russian princess, a prune and walnut orchard, a camellia nursery and a Christmas tree farm. We purchased the property in 1999, and it is now our home and family operated vineyards and winery. The previous owners restored the house. We remodeled much of the first floor, restored the barn and greenhouse, landscaped, expanded the vineyards and built the winery.

THE LANDSCAPE STORY

What started as a project to spruce the place up for our daughter's wedding in 2003 evolved into several years' worth of renovation and landscaping. In designing the garden, our goal was to recreate the feel of a garden that might have been planted at the time the house was built in the1890's, and we have saved the old plantings and trees whenever possible. We researched the structures and plantings of that era and have incorporated both whenever practical. However, ours is a family friendly garden heavily used by three generations and thus a "period correct" garden was never the goal.

We brought in truckloads of compost and added thousands of feet of Sonoma Fieldstone rock walls and Buckskin Flagstone terraces. We have something of fragrance in bloom at all times. We use only organic fertilizers and do not use chemical pesticides or fungicides.

Jonathan Plant did the original schematic and the planting plan for the Woodland Garden. Since then we have had additional design help from Chris Hedberg and Mieko Imai. My husband has also done some of the hardscape design and I have done some of the plant design. Price Landscaping installed both hardscape and plantings.

WHITE ICEBERG ROSES

Our practical daughter limited our floral budget for her 2003 wedding. We circumvented that restriction by planting 75 white Iceberg roses around the wedding site. After the wedding, we moved the Iceberg roses to several different locations in the garden. Thus was born the white Iceberg theme for the garden.

ROSE GARDEN

The formal euonymus japonicus edged rose garden with a fountain and rose, and clematis covered iron trellises and arches is reminiscent of those popular in the 1880's and 1890's in both the U.S. and Europe. The roses are planted in color blocks which was the popular method of the era. Most of the roses in the formal rose garden are floribunda, hybrid tea and shrub roses. Old garden roses and grandifloras are planted throughout the garden. There are approximately 250 roses of over 70 different varieties in the garden.

WHITE LADY BANKS' ROSE

An arborist estimates this Rosa banksiae (White Lady Banks' Rose) to be approximately 120 to150 years old. This species rose was first introduced in 1807 and is a thornless, double, white, evergreen rose. It devours the arbor, covers an old apple tree and climbs 30 feet or more up a Pine tree. It's a glorious sight in March when it is covered with masses of fragrant white blooms.

THE GREENHOUSE

The Lord and Burnham greenhouse was built circa 1920 by J. B. Landfield for his Russian princess wife, Louba. Mr. Landfield and his friend Mr. Crocker (founder of Crocker Bank), liked to spend their weekends partying with their male friends at the Bohemian Club. To keep their wives occupied in their absence, Mr. Landfield built the greenhouse as a gift for his wife. After World War II, the greenhouse was used as part of a commercial camellia nursery.

It is reportedly the oldest metal frame greenhouse on the west coast. The chimney and the cast iron pipe racks are all that is left of a below ground boiler and hot water heating system for the greenhouse and attached hot bed. We carefully restored the greenhouse to retain its original appearance but automated it for functionality using machinery we discovered when touring the greenhouses at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina.