Set within Napa Valley’s storied To Kalon Vineyard, Robert Mondavi Winery is widely credited with putting California wine on the global map. When it opened in 1966, its mission was as much cultural as oenological: to welcome the public into the experience of wine. Its iconic tower and sweeping arch – designed by midcentury designer Cliff May – served as both beacon and invitation, signalling a departure from European-inspired models toward something distinctly Californian.
Over time, however, as the brand expanded and the campus grew in an ad hoc, increasingly inward-looking way, its identity diffused. The facilities no longer reflected advances in winemaking or how visitors engaged with it, prompting a dramatic reimagining. For Aidlin Darling Design, the San Francisco–based practice known for finely tuned, site-driven work rather than large corporate commissions, it was an unexpected but compelling opportunity. ‘This is a project that’s way too important – we have to do it,’ recalls founding partner David Darling.
The intervention, says brand marketing director Peggy Hemphill, preserves the estate’s legacy while bringing production to a state-of-the-art level and rethinking the visitor experience – 'blurring the boundaries between architecture and the land’ to reconnect guests with the vineyard and the Mayacamas Mountains beyond. At its core is a renewed emphasis on place: opening the estate to its surroundings and integrating production with hospitality.
The reimagined campus – spanning 216,000 sq ft – pairs restraint with clarity. Decades of accretions have been stripped back and replaced with new layers that sharpen May’s original vision. The arch and tower are restored and repurposed, while a new south wing gathers indoor and outdoor hospitality functions beneath a dynamic, canopy-like roof that stitches together tasting rooms, terraces, retail and a courtyard. An adjacent wood-clad culinary wing and veranda further expand the estate’s public-facing role. Designed for Napa’s climate, many of the open-air spaces can be enclosed with sliding or pivoting glass. On the production side, upgraded fermentation and barrel cellars are on display, bringing the winemaking process into view.
A defining gesture is the inverted gable roof – a multipurpose form that collects water, echoes the Mayacamas Mountains, and establishes a clear dialogue with the historic structures. The project is also grounded in its materiality: concrete walls have an intentionally earthen character, while salvaged wood – oak tank staves marked by peg holes and wine stains, along with heavy timber beams – carries the imprint of the winery’s past into its present. ‘If architecture can have terroir, we wanted it to have a sense of terroir,’ says Darling, framing the project’s link between land, history and human craft.
'We wanted it to have a sense of terroir.'
David Darling, architect
Sustainability, particularly water stewardship, is central. ‘The future of winemaking is dependent on water – how we use it, how we conserve it, and how we clean and reuse it,’ Darling notes. That thinking informs everything from advanced wastewater treatment to an architectural language that makes cycles of collection and renewal legible. It extends to the buildings themselves: ‘To the greatest extent possible, we wanted to reuse the existing materials and structures,’ he adds – preserving legacy while embedding more responsible practices.
Led by Roderick Wyllie of Surfacedesign, Inc., the landscape design was developed in close collaboration with Aidlin Darling, creating a range of integrated indoor-outdoor environments that offer both expansive and intimate experiences. ‘People can enjoy being outside and feel that connection to the land and the vineyards,’ he says. Native plantings – oak, grasses, manzanitas, yarrow – combine with sculpted topography and locally sourced stone to root the experience in Northern California.
That same emphasis on stewardship carries into the landscape, where water also plays a central role. A bioswale captures runoff for reuse, while an aqueduct-like feature—fed by roof water and composed of quarry spoils and reclaimed slab material—runs east–west, alluding to the connection between the Mayacamas and the Napa River. This focus on natural systems extends to the ground plane, where the former event lawn has been reshaped into a sequence of naturalistic garden rooms, with pathways that draw visitors toward the vineyard itself.
For Mondavi, the transformation is less a reinvention than a realignment – bringing the winery back into closer register with the land, and with the cultural ambition that first defined it.
