This Napa Valley winery is a midcentury modernist desert dream

The recently completed Ashes & Diamonds Winery by Bestor Architecture aims to bring a bit of Southern California’s desert-postcard fantasy to Napa Valley wine country.

The 19,840-square-foot cut-and-paste homage to midcentury modernism is situated on a 30-acre site and features a collection of austere production facilities flanked by a swanky tasting room and public courtyard. The main production facility rises two stories and is marked by Albert Frey–inspired porthole windows on three sides.

The massive canopy shades the low-slung wood-and-stucco buildings. (Bruce Damonte)

The tasting room is located next door in a low wood-frame-and-stucco building wrapped by large expanses of floor-to-ceiling glass. The compressed, insulated box is situated directly underneath a prefabricated 3,585-square-foot steel canopy structure reminiscent of the folded plane architecture of Donald Wesley. The lounge spaces open out onto a shared courtyard within the L-shape configuration of structures, revealing short, spiky cacti and a grassy knoll framed by a meandering concrete path.