Yountville, one of Napa’s smallest municipalities, is witnessing an unprecedented construction project in the heart of its downtown, as the Bardessono Inn and Spa takes shape on five acres of former vineyard land. When the inn opens next February, visitors who flock to the mid-valley community for fine dining (French Laundry, Hurley’s, Bouchon, Bistro Jeanty, étoile) will be able to stay the night at what aims to be one of the most environmentally friendly places to stay in California.
Phil Sherburne, developer of the Bardessono, is determined to earn a platinum rating from the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System for his 62-room project. It wouldn’t be the first hotel in the Napa Valley to earn LEED certification—Gaia Hotel and Spa in American Canyon has earned a gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, which administers the system. But Sherburne is going beyond gold to create an establishment that, while not carbon-neutral, dramatically reduces energy use without sacrificing luxury.
“We’ve done everything we can think of that makes sense from an environmental standpoint,” says Sherburne, a former head planner for the city of Seattle and CEO of the investment group that’s leasing the property from the Bardessono family. A 200-kilowatt solar system, installed on the inn’s flat roof, will generate electricity without creating an eyesore in downtown Yountville: “You can’t see the panels unless you’re in an airplane,” Sherburne says.
While energy comes from the roof, heating and cooling will originate deep in the earth beneath the project. A geothermal field with 82 300-foot-deep wells will let the inn pump air warmed by the earth into guest rooms on cool days, while in hot weather, the geothermal pumps will return heat to the ground. “The only energy we use is to run the pumps,” Sherburne says.
Even if you wanted to squander energy at the Bardessono, it wouldn’t be easy. Fluorescent bulbs and light-emitting diodes will take the place of energy-hungry incandescent fixtures, while occupancy sensors will click off the lights and television after a guest leaves the room.
All of the windows will be equipped with exterior, Venetian-style blinds that are automatically controlled by thermostat to self-adjust against the heat of the day. Though popular in Europe, exterior blinds aren’t manufactured in the United States, so Sherburne had to order them from a German factory. Interior shades and curtains make no sense, Sherburne maintains, because, “Once the heat gets through the window, the room is already hot.” With the exterior blinds on the job, the Bardessono’s guest rooms won’t need draperies, he adds—a plus for guests with allergies.
Allergic or not, Sherburne wants everyone to breathe easily: The rooms will also have non-allergenic flooring made of wood and concrete instead of carpeting and glue. The paints, stains and adhesives used throughout the inn will be low VOC, meaning they emit fewer of the unhealthy gases known as “volatile organic compounds.” The furniture—all certified green—will be aired out repeatedly before being installed in the rooms. The laundry will be washed using an ionization system that leaves no detergent smell or residue.
There’s more—much more—to meet LEED’s platinum standard. Luckily, Sherburne is no newcomer to sustainable projects. He impulsively quit his city planner job to help develop Decatur Northwest, a 485-acre vacation community on an island off the Washington coast, where 97 percent of the land is held in common by 75 homeowners, motorcars and personal watercraft are banned, and roads are just 12 feet wide.
“We decided to change the island as little as possible,” says Sherburne, who wants the Bardessono to fit into Yountville in the same way Decatur Northwest suits its island. But where, what needed preserving on Decatur was the open land, Sherburne’s interest in Yountville is the people. Although the Bardessono project will include a public park and 28 affordable housing units, its developer knows residents will miss the family vineyard that operated there for more than 80 years—and might resent the pricy new spa that replaces it.
To help forge a connection between the inn and its neighbors, Sherburne took an unusual step. In July, he hired San Francisco photographer Christopher Irion to bring his home-made photo booth to town. For two days, Yountville residents took turns, alone, in pairs, with pets or in family groups—ducking into the booth for their digital portraits. Irion, whose specialty is the human face, then pored over the hundreds of images before choosing one from each sitting to include in a mural, to be called “A Yountville Portrait,” that will be displayed in front of the Bardessono construction site until November. Each of his subjects also received a copy of the chosen print. It’s a novel way to reach out, but (as you may have noticed) Sherburne is no ordinary developer.
A Bonny glass
If you’re still feeling sore that Silver Oak never had enough of its Bonny’s Vineyard Cabernet, take heart: More than 15 years after vintner Justin Meyer decided to discontinue the prized, single-vineyard Cab as a “marketing headache,” his widow and son are reintroducing it under the Meyer Family Cellars label.
The 2003 Bonny’s Vineyard is made from grapes planted in 1999 on the four-acre vineyard where Bonny Meyer still lives in the family farmhouse. Matt Meyer and wife Karen make the wine at the family winery in Yorkville Highlands, Mendocino County, where they also produce Port and Syrah. Those two wines are available for sampling at the tasting room, but to taste Bonny’s Vineyard, you’ll have to shell out $125 for a bottle. I guess there’s still not a lot to go around.
