Underground winery near Sonoma line approved, despite Napa County’s growing winery tensions
But it comes at a time when many residents are growing wary of expanding wine infrastructure, no matter how discreet.
The project, backed by the French winemaking Tesseron family, calls for a 20,000-gallon-ayear winery built almost entirely beneath the surface of a 43-acre parcel on Wall Road — near the family’s sprawling estate, once owned by the late actor and comedian Robin Williams.
The 14,729-square-foot facility would have just one visible feature: a skylight atop a soil covered dome.
“This is a model project that benefits the environment, which we don’t often see,” Planning Commissioner Pete Richmond said during the commission’s 4-0 vote in favor.
The development would eliminate the need to truck grapes across the valley to Angwin for processing, a practice the family has followed since buying the property and surrounding parcels in 2016. That haul, repeated annually, adds to traffic congestion and emissions on already strained Napa roads.
Still, even low-impact wineries face heightened scrutiny in Napa County, where residents have increasingly pushed back against what they see as overdevelopment in rural areas. Opponents of similar projects have raised alarms about water use, tree removal and the changing character of the valley.
In this case, 15 native trees would be removed during construction. But the county is requiring the planting and permanent preservation of 45 new trees as a condition of approval. No public visitation, tastings or marketing events will be allowed.
Commissioner Kara Brunzell — who is married to Press Democrat reporter Phil Barber — said the project shows how rejecting winery proposals can sometimes do more harm than good. Once built, she said, the winery would be more environmentally sound and less disruptive than trucking grapes across the valley.
Commissioner Megan Dameron praised the plan’s water strategy of shifting residential use to a well while using a natural spring for wine production.
“It’s environmentally sound and logistically smart,” she said.
The Tesseron family, known for its Bordeaux wines and Cognac, uses grapes from the property to produce between 7,000 and 8,500 gallons of wine annually.
Their Napa wine is currently made offsite, but land surveyor Jon Webb, speaking on the family’s behalf, said building a winery onsite is a natural next step.
The proposal sailed through Wednesday’s meeting, with Commissioner Walter Brooks absent.
But with Napa’s winery policies under increasing pressure, even low-profile projects like this may face louder questions moving forward, especially if more vineyard owners pursue similar underground developments to avoid public pushback.
Source: https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/napa/tesseron-wine-napa-sonoma-winery/