A Vision of Ancient Persia

The Darioush Winery is located on the east side of the Silverado Trail, beyond some imposing wroughtiron gates and at the end of a long driveway. Glimpsed for the first time, it seems to have been magically transported here from another time and place. Its architectural language is drawn in good part from the palace complex that the Greeks called Persepolis, meaning “city of Persians,” built in the sixth century B.C.E. and looted by Alexander just two centuries later.

Although comparatively modest in scale, the winery makes a stunning impression. On a broad terrace in front of the entrance are sixteen free-standing columns, each one eighteen feet high and topped by stylized bulls. The main building is constructed of travertine stone that was quarried in Iran, not far from the ruins of Persepolis. Pale orange in hue, the stone was shipped to Turkey, where it was cut and given the look of age by a process called tumbling—abrading it with sand in big machines. The building blocks then continued their journey on to the Napa Valley, where they were assembled and given decorative accents modeled on those of the old Achaemenian capital.