Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards Master Plan

Shadley Associates worked with the Brown-Forman Corporation to create a Landscape Master Plan for their Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards in Windsor, California. The first goal of the Master Plan was to use the site to reveal how the geology and solar aspect of the site are intrinsic to the viticulture practiced at Sonoma-Cutrer. The second goal addressed in the Master Plan was more elusive: how to depict in the landscape the disciplined philosophy toward winemaking, which includes the goal of ecologically improving upon nature though the deliberate intervention and appropriate application of state-of-the-art technology. These two philosophies and practices have been at the heart of Sonoma-Cutrer’s success.

In the Landscape Master Plan, Shadley Associates provided specific recommendations for how practical and aesthetic improvements can be prioritized and phased to heighten the guest’s awareness of this landscape experience. Recommendations include a wide range of site elements such as entry signage, walls and gates, roadway alignment and parking layout, opening of vistas, water and soil quality improvements, maintenance and management, visitor arrival staging, tasting room and tour path experiences, site lighting, signage and planting recommendations. Each of these specific design proposals builds on the theme of weaving the cutting edge technology in winemaking practiced at Sonoma-Cutrer with the extraordinarily beautiful aspects of the site for the purposes of improving the visitor’s experience.