REDEFINING AN INDUSTRY
ASHES & DIAMONDS Napa Valley winery
becomes a showcase
BY DEBRA GELBART
for perfected wine
T HE IDEA OF OPENING a winery first came to Kashy Khaledi as he was giving his father a tour of a recording studio in Hollywood. The year was 2013, but the foundation for the idea had been building before that. As the executive creative director for Capitol Music Group, Khaledi realized that what he calls the “digitization of culture” was gradually making his job less substantial, more challenging and, as a result, less appealing. The digital universe is infinite and allows you to scale exponentially, which can become complicated and time-consuming,” he explains. “What I was doing wasn’t fun for me anymore.”
on the property was under construction. “We were able to build it affordably,” Khaledi says, “because we were still coming out of the Great Recession.” Completed in 2017, the building was designed by Barbara Bestor of Bestor Architecture in Los Angeles, and won a 2018 Merit Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) L.A. chapter. The name of the winery, Ashes & Diamonds, is from a poem that figured prominently in a 1958 Polish movie by the same name. Two lines from the poem written by the 19th century Polish poet Cyprian Norwid that Khaledi especially appreciates are “…the ashes hold the glory of a starlike diamond/The Morning Star of everlasting triumph.” Khaledi says those lines appear on every cork of his winery’s bottles. “Poetry in a bottle,” he says. Crafting a legacy Khaledi did his homework before he embarked on operating a winery. He attended the Court of Master Sommeliers, an international educational organization established in 1977 to encourage improved standards of beverage service by wine stewards. He also traveled to France and visited every wine-growing region in the country. Khaledi learned that ever since his vineyard was first planted in 1986, the grapes for cabernet franc and merlot varietals have always done best in the type of soil in that location, the south side of Napa Valley closer to San Pablo Bay, where the weather is cool. He and winemaker Diana Snowden Seysses wanted to change the perception of what modern Napa Valley wines had become. “Big, blockbuster, high-alcohol, over-extracted and teeth-staining,”
From music to merlot Khaledi started imagining a different future for himself and “the concept of something tangible and tactile—something that was real—began to connect with me,” he says. It was right around that time that his father, while touring that recording studio, told Khaledi that he was selling a vineyard in Napa. He asked him if he would like to purchase it. After answering with a resounding yes, Khaledi came up with a broad, creative plan for a winery and within a year and a half, he was making wine on his own. By late 2015, a 20,000-square-foot building
“We will never bottle wine that is flawed.” Kashy Khaledi Founder, Ashes & Diamonds
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IN YOUR CORNER ISSUE 18 | 2024
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