Research Mission : Mystery Winery : Yountville, Calif.

Hello faithful readers. Matt and I embarked on a research mission to sunny Yountville, Calif. last week. Thinking about Novella's coop, we came up with a design that uses de-constructed shipping pallets, covered with hardware cloth, and filled with rocks. Something like this, but smaller:

The sign at the winery's front entrance states "No Tours. No Tastings." Not to be deterred, we sweet-talked the guard into letting us wander around for "a little bit." We had the place to ourselves for 20 minutes. The main road drives straight up to this imposing structure, and you can see right through it to the dirt road that meanders through vineyards and up into the hills. It was late afternoon, the sun was out, and very peaceful. Here's Matt, taking it all in.

The sun comes through the stone walls and throws some excellent shadows.

Thanks very much to the winery that values its privacy and perhaps wishes to remain nameless. We understand you don't want a bunch of architecture geeks coming to gawk your walls. But we just had to see it! We welcome all of you to gawk at Novella's coop, which should be up and clucking by the end of February.