Step Inside Some of the Most Stunning Homes in California Wine Country

A new book by Heather Sandy Hebert and Chase Reynolds Ewald features nearly 20 homes that embody innovative architecture and design.

Step Inside Some of the Most Stunning Homes in California Wine Country
Christopher Stark Photography
A weekend retreat above acres of vineyards in Healdsburg's famed Dry Creek Valley. Designed by Sutro Architects and built by Upscale Construction for a Bay Area family, the home is eco-conscious, energy-efficient, open to nature, and full of light.
Written by Kristin Scharkey October 25, 2021

A woodland Sonoma farmhouse bordered by grapevines. A rustic Calistoga estate draped in native Napa Syar stone. A Napa Valley weekend home featuring the “greatest hits” of famed architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen. These are just a few of the homes featured in At Home the Wine Country: Architecture & Design in the California Vineyards, a new book by Heather Sandy Hebert and Chase Reynolds Ewald.

An apt addition to your coffee table, this 240-page hardcover features nearly 20 homes and a handful of additional buildings that embody the innovative architecture and design across California wine country. The region has “come to be defined by its lifestyle as much as its wines” in recent decades, the authors write, with an ethos that is marked by the indoor-outdoor experience. “Today’s homes seamlessly integrate the region’s sublime scenery and climate with its cuisine.”

Take a peek inside a few of these immaculate homes, which range from contemporary to agrarian.

This house, designed by Amy A. Alper, Architect, with interiors by Jennifer Robin Interiors, weaves together old and new, rustic and sophisticated to tell an authentic story of living on the land.

John Merkl Photography

Architect Michael Guthrie designed a home perched 600 feet above Sonoma as a full-time residence for Bay Area clients. Constructed by Reiter Fine Home Building, the exterior is defined by stone, cedar, and a standing-seam metal roof.

Aubrie Pick Photography

Guest cottages enjoy their own unique connections to the outdoors and pool at this house designed by George Bevan, principal of Bevan + Associates. Outdoor Magis Spun Chairs are from Design Within Reach, linens are by Brooklinen, and pillows are from RH.

Douglas Friedman Photography

Architects Pfau Long and landscape architects Lutsko Associates devised a cluster of buildings set amid a rural landscape that changes with the seasons, creating an oasis for a Marin family.

Art Gray Photography

A light and airy boot room opens to the driveway for ease of access with wet dogs and bags of groceries. Eames Construction built the cedar cabinetry to owner and designer Rossi Scott’s specifications. The handles are from Rocky Mountain Hardware. An existing water tank was clad in white cedar and topped with a tin roof.

Adam Potts Photography

A weekend retreat above acres of vineyards in Healdsburg’s famed Dry Creek Valley. Designed by Sutro Architects and built by Upscale Construction for a Bay Area family, the home is eco-conscious, energy-efficient, open to nature, and full of light. The open-plan living room, dining room, and kitchen are open to the outdoors on two sides. The ceiling is cedar, the cabinetry walnut.

Christopher Stark Photography

A house designed as a nature-intensive retirement home by Feldman Architecture perches just below a ridgeline on the 18,000-acre Santa Lucia Preserve in the Carmel Valley. Contractor Brian Groza built the rammed-earth walls, batched onsite, to contour with the hillside. The landscape plan by Jodi Janecki ties the home to its setting by preserving the oak woodlands, native grassland, and lupine meadows as much as possible.

Joe Fletcher Photography

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Excerpt from At Home in the Wine Country by Heather Sandy Hebert and Chase Reynold Ewald. Reprinted by permission of Gibbs Smith Books.

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