DESIGN SPOT
ALLAN WARBURG’S DONUM
ESTATE, a winery in Napa Valley
just off the Carneros Highway,
has been quietly building a
reputation for magnificent
Burgundy-style pinot noirs
made by company president
and winemaker Anne Moller-
Racke. Within the estate — which the recent
fires left unscathed — Donum is also cultivating
a magnificent sculpture park filled with works by
international artists such as Subodh Gupta, Lyn-
da Benglis, Ai Weiwei and Danh Vo. A recently
unveiled visitors’ center is also a modern gallery
designed by San Francisco’s Matt Hollis of MH
Architects; a special glass structure within the
vines will soon house Louise Bourgeois’ spider
sculpture. thedonumestate.com
PHILIP MCGAHAN, former winemaker at
Williams Selyem in the Russian River Valley,
Sonoma, has gone to Checkmate, an artisanal
winery owned by Anthony Von Mandl, specializing in chardonnay and merlot in Canada’s
little-known Okanagan Valley. There, Seattle
architect Tom Kundig has created a cool pop-up
tasting room of wood, concrete and Cor-ten
that resembles a chic shipping container and
contrasts with the winery’s current buildings
that will all undoubtedly be redesigned. Meanwhile, seldom open to the public, the winery
can offer select vintages from Kundig’s pavilion
during summers. checkmatewinery.com
THE DUTCH COMPANY Vij5’s new terracotta
carafe purifies and cools tap water naturally.
This ancient practice of storing water in such
vessels, commonplace in India, is brought
into the modern age by designer Lotte Raadt’s
new shapes that vary to suggest water sources:
tall bottles for water from wells; squat bottles
for surface water; a middle size for water
from dunes. The stopper tops resemble faucet
handles. The so-called Tap Water Carafe,
shown recently during Dutch Design Week,
is produced at Raadt’s Eindhoven studio and
aims to reduce the use of plastic water bottles.
About $110 each. vij5.nl
IN SAN FRANCISCO’S RUSSIAN HILL, a
new home design retail store called Batch
presents local and global brands in curated
vignettes and room settings. For instance,
Marin’s Robert Long Lighting is among those
featured alongside Maison Deux. Discover
furniture, tableware and beautiful vessels
from makers around the world. visitbatch.com
DEEPA’S SECRETS: SLOW
CARB NEW INDIAN CUISINE,
a new cookbook of healing
recipes by San Francisco author Deepa Thomas, former
CEO of Deepa Textiles, is already in its third printing perhaps because of its sumptuous
photography, well-researched
material, and Thomas’ memoirs interleaved through the
book of a childhood in India;
they link the ingredients to
time and place. More important, the simple recipes are
intended to be truly healthful.
After eating her food, Thomas’ husband, cured of diabetes,
no longer needs insulin shots.
All royalties go to FoodCorps,
a nonprofit that connects
children with healthy food in
American schools. Skyhorse
Publishing; $25
IN FULL FLOWER: INSPIRED
DESIGNS BY FLORAL’S NEW
CREATIVES, by Gemma and
Andrew Ingalls, is filled with
beautiful images of floral
arrangements that nudge the
genre into the realm of art. A
handbook of brilliant ideas,
it is also a directory of new
American talent. Rizzoli; $45
PRIVATE GARDENS OF
THE BAY AREA , by Susan
Lowry and Nancy Berner,
with photographs by Marion
Brenner, is a stroll through
more than 35 gardens in the
San Francisco Bay Area. Moving from grand estates in the
San Francisco Peninsula, into
urban settings in San Francisco, and crossing the Bay
into Berkeley, Oakland, Napa,
Sonoma and Marin, the authors discuss garden traditions
dictated by microclimates
that support a range of plants.
The Monacelli Press; $60
