The Austrian Winery Boom in Napa Valley
Well, its not hard to guess which is the best place in the US for an exhibition about Wineries. Right, you got it: Napa Valley....give the man, lady a penny! After a successful stint in fantastic Los Angeles the show The Austrian Winery Boom moved on to Napa, the US winemaking heartland. I joined for the exhibition opening and a little winery tour through Napa.
The opening night was great, a bunch of wine afficionados of the Napa Valley joined in for the Austrian Wine tasting, and architecture gawking extravaganza. I learned that night that Napa is probably the worst place for contemporary Architecture on the Planet. Not that they despise progressive, or even modern architecture.....just, somewhere else please. The audience was surprised about the fact that Austrian Winemakers successfully blend old built structures with modern architecture,
without the fear to loose a historic context. If you ask me that is mainly due to the convincing work of the architects, and their ability to understand the perspective of their constructions. The day after the opening we went for a tour of the Napa Valley, stopping at the HdM designed Dominus Winery, Quixote (designed by Hundertwasser) and Quintessa by Walker Warner Architects. The tour was organized by Neil Harvey, Copias Curator and included Martin Weiss, Austrias General Consul in LA and Bernhard Faustenhammer, Consul of Austria. It was a great blend of muggin architecture while simultaneously enjoying great wines plus delicious food.
