Napa's most colorful winery is back after bankruptcy, a billionaire acquisition and a year-long restoration
Clos Pegase Winery, known for its distinct architecture, was a part of the fallout of the Vintage Wine Estates bankruptcy in 2024. Now, it has reopened under new ownership and following a yearlong closure. (Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle)
A 42-year-old Napa Valley winery known for its dramatic architecture has reopened following a bankruptcy, an acquisition and a yearlong restoration.
Calistoga's Clos Pegase, designed by famed postmodern architect Michael Graves, was collateral damage in the sudden bankruptcy of California wine conglomerate Vintage Wine Estates in 2024. More than 30 wine and spirits brands were auctioned off to the highest bidders, and Clos Pegase - along with four other classic California wineries - went to a surprising new owner: Billionaire Jay Adair, the executive chairman of Copart, a global online car auction company based in Dallas.
Adair, who, in the ‘90s, started a small family winery in Solano County's lesser-known Suisun Valley, said he had never heard of Vintage Wine Estates until it went bankrupt. When he learned they owned Clos Pegase, he became interested in buying it; Adair had fond memories of the winery, which hosted a Copart event in 1999. "We went up there and saw it, and I was like, ‘What did they do to it?' Everything was so not what I remembered," he said. "They changed the colors, which was so asinine. The lawn was dead. The Cyprus trees were all scraggly. But I knew we could bring it back."
That visit led to not only the purchase of Clos Pegase, but also four other historic wineries - Sonoma County's B.R. Cohn, Kunde and Viansa, and Napa Valley's Girard - for $85 million, which is less than the typical price of one. (In recent years, wineries like these have sold for hundreds of millions of dollars.) While Adair had zero experience running a wine empire that produces roughly 100,000 cases of wine a year, it's arguably a humble endeavor compared to Copart, which has more than 250 locations and more than 12,000 employees.
Clos Pegase's new art gallery features a working studio for local watercolorist Barbara Nechis, and visitors may catch her painting in real time. (Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle)
Still, "it was more work than we thought," Adair said. The wines "were great," but there had been a "lack of maintenance" across all five estates, whose reputations had each deteriorated to some degree under Vintage's reign. Revitalizing them became much more expensive than the $20 million Adair had originally planned; when they pressure-washed the walls of Kunde, for example, they "went from brown to white," because smoke from past wildfires hadn't been cleaned off. Clos Pegase "had been beaten up the most," he said, recalling that the roof was leaking in five places, and demanded a significant renovation that required a one-year closure.
Clos Pegase was founded in 1984 by art collectors Jan and Mitsuko Shrem, whose vision was to create a winery that intersected with art. They launched an international competition with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to find a winery designer. From 96 submissions, they chose Graves, known for colorful, playful designs that incorporate historical elements. (As such, Graves designed several projects for Disney.) His classical, Mediterranean-inspired design for Clos Pegase featured sunset hues of terracotta, pale yellow and blue, and an enormous, vineyard-and-mountain-view portico.
A stark contrast to Napa Valley's classic and minimalist estates, the striking design was radical at the time. As it was being built, there was "a lot of pushback" from the local community, according to Clos Pegase winemaker Robin Akhurst, who has worked at the winery since 2016. "People were like, ‘What are you building?' But that's what makes good art. It has to be challenging. It can't be run of the mill or pedestrian."
From left, Clos Pegase's longtime winemaker Robin Akhurst and co-owner Tammi Adair walk the grounds at the revitalized winery. (Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle)
Under the Shrems' ownership, Clos Pegase showcased nearly 1,000 works of art, including several large-scale sculptures such as an eight-foot-tall bronze thumb by French sculptor César Baldaccini. In 2013, a few years after Mitsuko's death, Jan Shrem sold the winery to Vintage and left only a few pieces of art. Vintage then painted the winery "battleship gray," said Adair's wife Tammi. "It was so commercial and cold. It gave off ghost mall vibes."
Tammi Adair has led Clos Pegase's restoration, and her first objective was to return the winery to its original color palette. Graves died in 2015, but she worked with his architecture firm to procure the paint colors, and the estate once again pops out from the road long before one reaches the gate. She then revitalized the courtyard gardens, replanting 52 Cyprus trees and adding cherry trees as an homage to Mitsuko Shrem's Japanese heritage. The cherry trees surround an 18th-century Carrara marble fountain, a gift from Jan to Mitsuko, which the Adairs have restored.
Clos Pegase's revitalization included returning the winery to its original color palette and restoring the courtyard gardens. (Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle)
The Adairs are not art collectors, but they were committed to honoring the Shrems' legacy. Tammi Adair repurposed office space into an art gallery, where emerging artists will exhibit their work for three to six months. Currently, the space showcases the whimsical paintings and ceramics of local artist Carlo Marchiori, whose work will be featured on the labels of Clos Pegase's forthcoming Artist Series collection. The six wines, which will feature a different artist each vintage, will focus on "pretty eccentric varietals," Akhurst said, including Touriga Nacional, Alicante Bouschet and Albariño. "We're trying to give people something they won't bump into that frequently up here."
The gallery also hosts a working studio for abstract watercolor artist Barbara Nechis, a friend of the Shrems, who visitors may catch painting in real time. Additional art is scattered throughout the property. In the caves, there's a hand-carved Pegasus statue that friends gifted the Adairs, and a series of surrealist musical instruments by local sculptor Guy Pederson, who was mentored by the Shrems early in his career. Inside the refreshed club member lounge, the winery's enormous, original wrecking ball sculpture hovers above a large table for private group tastings. "It was Jan's vision that this was a place where wine and art could come together, and for whatever reasons, it got diluted," Akhurst said. "We're leaning back heavily into that. It's way too easy for us to get into the technical side of things and forget that part of winemaking is art. There needs to be more of that in the wine industry and fewer spreadsheets."
A sculpture of a frayed wrecking ball, one of the winery's few original art pieces, hangs above a large table used for group tastings. (Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle)
The main tasting room had "an 80s look," Tammi Adair said, but now, it's a modern lounge with plush seating and a cozy fireplace. Tastings of Clos Pegase's signature wines - Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir - start at $50, and the winery has also launched a more casual by-the-bottle experience in designated outdoor areas, like a large, grassy lawn that's encircled by vines.
Outdoor bottle service is offered at all five estates, and Jay Adair said they haven't raised tasting fees or bottle prices. While Vintage was mostly focused on the wholesale side of the business, he's prioritizing the visitor experience. "We did dive in, maybe headfirst and without checking how deep the water was, but it was worth it," he said, noting he's not planning to buy more wineries.
"We have these five amazing brands, they look great now and we get to enjoy them for the next 20 to 30 years."
