Cradled in the rolling hills of California’s Suisun Valley, a short drive southeast from Napa Valley, Caymus-Suisun Winery comprises a 5,500-square-foot glass tasting room pavilion, a retail building, and 29 acres of orchards, vegetable gardens, and vineyards.
With the interiors designed by the Bureau and Thad Geldert, founder of Geldert, and architecture by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, the property leans heavily on earthy, warm, and putty-colored tones, gracefully blending in with its natural surroundings rather than competing with it.
The palette in the central tasting room “pulls from colors that exist contextually from the horizon level down, [allowing] the view straight through the operable glazed panels to remain unfettered,” says Sarah Giesenhagen, creative director of the Bureau. “The palette determined that no blues were to be used so that the sky stood out singularly.”
Moodier tones that recall harvest season define the east tasting room, while lighter colors are used in the west tasting area to allow the late afternoon sun to add a natural golden hour color.
Custom art pieces are thoughtfully curated to feel organic, including a 12-foot-long woven, inner-lit sculpture by Tanya Aguiñiga and Nate Cotterman hangs in the east tasting room, representing burn piles traditionally produced during vineyard maintenance.
Giesenhagen also reflects on how the wildfires came within half a mile at one point during construction, and the team had, coincidentally, built “large hammered steel backlit discs mounted on the building cores [that] harken to the blacked out sun we experienced on smoke-filled days.”
