Artesa Vineyards & Winery Unveils New Tasting Salon

Modern Design and Food Pairings Showcase the Carneros Winery’s Spanish Heritage

August 16th, 2017 (Napa, Calif.) – Artesa Vineyards & Winery (www.artesawinery.com) recently revealed a stunning remodeled Tasting Salon at its famous hilltop estate in Los Carneros. Long known for dramatic views and innovative architecture, the iconic pinot noir and chardonnay producer now offers intimate, upscale tasting experiences featuring exclusive single vineyard wines and Barcelona-inspired food pairings. The remodel coincides with the release of new wines and label designs that reflect the winery’s Spanish heritage and commitment to artisan winemaking and craft.

Winery Description & Philosophy

Artesa, Catalan for ‘artisan’, is a Spanish-American brand that delivers authentic craftsmanship in small production, award-winning wines. The winery was founded in 1991 by Codorníu-Raventós (www.codorniuraventos.com/en), the creators of Cava and the oldest family business in Spain with over 460 years of winemaking expertise. The 17^th generation of the family chose Napa Valley’s Los Carneros for their first winery outside Spain due to the region’s affinity for sparkling wines. They established Artesa once the vineyard revealed its capacity to produce world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay still wines. Today, the winemaking team, led by Ana Diogo-Draper, crafts artisanal wines that express their unique origin, personality and heritage.

Likewise Artesa’s new Tasting Salon reflects both the winery’s native and adopted homes, drawing inspiration from the art, culture and nature of both Barcelona and the Bay Area. “Artesa’s new Tasting Salon embodies the best of both our worlds,” says Susan Sueiro, President of Artesa Winery. “Our wines offer a Spanish perspective on Napa Valley flavors. Our new look and feel in the Tasting Salon complements those wines with an atmosphere reminiscent of our favorite places in Barcelona where guests can enjoy the beauty and bounty of Napa Valley.”

In addition to several distinct bottlings of pinot noir and chardonnay, the winery is known for its vintage estate sparkling wine and highly limited cabernet, tempranillo and albariño wines, all available exclusively at the winery.

Tasting Salon Design Details

The Tasting Salon features sweeping views, with floor to ceiling windows that help bring the dramatic Carneros landscape into the tasting room and courtyard. At the heart of the chic, bright-white space is a dramatic circular bar covered with hand-made tiles, custom designed and imported from Barcelona. Leather lounge chairs and tall white ‘tapas’ tables complete the room, creating an atmosphere of relaxed luxury reminiscent of the Mediterranean waterfront. 

The walls are decorated with artwork commissioned for Artesa’s new wine labels. The winery worked with Mucho (www.wearemucho.com), a San Francisco design firm headquartered in Barcelona, to create the new identity, designs and packaging for the brand. The SF Mucho team was able to draw from artists and genres in both countries to create unique images for each label, to express the distinct personality and story of each wine. “Our name means artisan and our wines are artisanal, so we wanted our designs to be handmade and artistic, in addition to reflecting our heritage,” explains Sueiro. “We were particularly inspired by Spanish modernist tile & metal work, as well as textiles, painting and illustration.” Pentagram design studio (www.pentagram.com) helped translate the new branding into the concept for the winery remodel, which was brought to fruition by Signum Architecture (www.signumarchicture.com) and Cello & Maudru Construction (www.cello-maudru.com).

Salon Offerings

In the new Tasting Salon, guests will enjoy several new elevated experiences. Artesa offers a flight of five exclusive Single Vineyard wines in the Tasting Salon and Terrace. Guests may also choose one of several curated food and wine pairing experiences by appointment: ‘Vino con Queso’ matches wines with artisanal cheeses made in Spain and the US, the ‘Tulip Tasting’ pairs caviar with sparkling and aromatic white wines, and ‘Pinxtos’ offers skewered tapas in the Basque tradition, each created to complement a specific wine.

Artesa will continue to offer a classic tasting without appointment in the Foyer Tasting Room.   

Visitor Information

The property is located at 1345 Henry Rd, Napa, CA 94559; the tasting room is open daily, 10am – 5pm. Tours and tasting experiences may be reserved online at www.artesawinery.com.