The Dominus Estate winery building stands in Yountville in the Napa Valley of California. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron designed it, and it was their first project in the United States. Christian Moueix commissioned it as the sole owner of Dominus Estate after Robin Lail and Marcia Smith sold their shares in 1995. It was built in 1996 and cost 5 million dollars.
The building covers 50,000 square feet (4,600 square meters). Its walls are gabions, which are cages filled with local stone. The gabion walls were designed to block daytime heat and nighttime cold.
Before the building went up, Dominus crushed and aged its previous thirteen vintages at Rombauer Winery. The gabion construction is the building's main feature.
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