Whimsical, quixotic, adventurous, eccentric. These are adjectives I would attribute to a beloved book, a memorable movie character and now a favored Napa Valley winery.
A boutique gem situated on 42 acres in the heart of the golden hillsides of the Stags Leap District appellation, Quixote Winery produces just 3,500 cases annually. Its small, limited production Cabernet Sauvignon is only found at its winery and its Petite Syrah can only be procured at select Napa Valley restaurants and hotels.
This isn’t a destination you’ll discover driving by. Upon learning we were planning a trip, friends and fellow fledgling oenophiles offered to meet us in wine country and introduce us to a unique estate vineyard and tasting room they had visited several times before.
The original winery owner Carl Doumani had long held a fascination with the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. In 1989, he discovered the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian painter, architect, ecologist and philosopher. Believing that the wine society had transformed a beverage of consummate pleasure into an absurdly serious pursuit, Doumani commissioned Hundertwasser to design a winery to combat these notions and the legacy that is Quixote Winery began.
Inspired by the designs of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi, Hundertwasser rebelled against the “sterile order of the grid,” choosing to reject straight lines, calling them “godless” and “uncreative.” The resulting building is unlike anything else in the valley – the winery’s colorful mosaics and free flow of curves are set in a structure where no two windows are the same and there are no hard edges or right angles. The exterior landscape of the wine-crafting property is defined by the artist’s quest to allow guests to “find nature again.” Tall wild grasses, rosemary bushes, thyme, persimmon, Buddha’s hand citrus, pomegranate, fig and nectarine fill the lovely garden.
After an informative estate tour and a stroll through the lovely environs, we headed indoors for a delightful tasting to sample several of the winery’s signature varietals paired with gourmet cheeses and chocolate truffles infused with its own Petite Syrah. Each were lovely with great balance and complexity. But our collective favorites? We all went home with several bottles of Quixote’s 2019 Cabernet and the 2016 and 2019 Petite Syrah and a plan to journey back to once again “break away from reality and discover the beauty of reuniting with nature and your own creative mind.”
