Chateau St. Jean is a small but growing winery in Sonoma Valley. As part of an enhancement program for several of Beringer’s high end wineries, we designed a new 5,000 SF Hospitality Building and master planned the reorganization of various buildings around a series of formal walled garden.
The first phase of the Chateau St. Jean renovation project began with a site analysis and master plan. Through these exercises, we quickly found that the ever-increasing number of visitors to the site had stifled the circulation patterns and overwhelmed the existing Chateau and vineyards. The addition of a new Hospitality Building absorbed much of this foot traffic while allowing the Chateau and vineyard to remain the focus of the site.
The new building is carefully inserted into the garden with only its short façade fronting the main garden, allowing the addition of a sizeable new building without visually overwhelming the existing Chateau. A pallet of materials consistent with the existing structures is used on the site – light stucco walls, red clay roof tiles, and cast stone trim. The main space houses a wine tasting bar, charcuterie, and retail space in addition to the requisite support areas. French doors allow access to a series of terraces and gardens that are used for both informal and structured wine tasting.
