The combination of art and wine has always made sense. They both represent works of passion and are often paired at gallery openings, state dinners and in private homes. Ma(i)sonry in Yountville, Napa Valley, has taken the natural pairing of art and wine and created an experience well worth trying and experiencing for yourself.


Originally, we decided to visit Ma(i)sonry because it's the only place where you can taste Blackbird Vineyards wines. Blackbird is owned by Michael Polenske, a former executive at JPMorgan and managing director of private investment firm Quellos, and he had the good sense to hire Sarah Gott as his winemaker for the Blackbird proprietary red blends. Sarah is a well-known and well respected winemaker in Napa, married to Joel Gott, who's responsible for Joel Gott Wines and The Show Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as others.

Full disclosure - I'm a big fan of all the wines that the Gott's produce. From The Show (at $12) all the way up to the Blackbird blends (at $90), there's something very special about what the Gott's are making. And, for both my wife and I, the Blackbird wines are top of our list. I'll review the wines in a future post (as this post is more about Ma(i)sonry), but, suffice it to say, the Blackbird family of wines are deep, rich and textured red wines, with one of the best labels in the wine industry (for those of you who care about labels).

So, back to Ma(i)sonry...

As I mentioned, Blackbird got us there, but, when we walked in the door, we knew we were in for a cool experience. First off, the building itself is a historical landmark and they've done an incredible job of rebuilding it, with some of the work dedicated to nothing more than keeping the building standing. Even more work was dedicated to creating a modern sensibility inside a very old shell. Not an easy thing to do, but the two blend together very nicely.

Our host, Anthony DiCarlo, was incredibly welcoming from the moment we stepped in the door. He immediately handed us a glass of the Blackbird Rose and, sensing how interested we were in the building itself, he proceeded to tell us about the history and renovation of the building and its former life as a B&B. My biggest fear when I walk into a place like Ma(i)sonry is that I will be greeted as if I was truly privileged for having entered such a magical place, that I should feel humbled by the effort of the proprietors and bow to the site's historical grandeur. I felt none of that from Anthony and he was a big part of us enjoying our experience there.

He let us walk around the two stories of the building and enjoy the art that comes, in part, from Polenske's private collection - a mixture of old and new, with a nice blend of contemporary modern and historical pieces. Clearly, the guy has good taste, as does his staff. And, the gallery isn't just inside. Outside, in the yard, the art continues with two large metal pears and a very long, three-piece wooden table that could easily seat 25 - 30 people, as well as some other beautiful and functional pieces.

Then, on to the tasting portion of our visit. We asked to tasted the Blackbird wines because we've come to love the wines they make, but there are other wines there as well - currently, they're tasting Brown Estate, Lail Vineyards, Pedras, Renteria, Tor Kenward and Joel Gott Wines. One of the ideas behind Ma(i)sonry is that they wanted to represent a collection of artisan wines that were sometimes too small to have their own tasting room and/or could be part of a great portfolio of wines.

In Polenske's words, "Pairing artisan wines with exquisite art and furnishings in an historic setting." For him, it's a way to bring all his passions under one roof; for us, it was a way to enjoy some of our favorite wines and great art and design at the same time. Can't get much better than that.

We went through a flight of Blackbird wines - the Arriviste (a Rose), Arise, Contrarian, Paramour and Illustration (all proprietary reds) - as Anthony walked us through what to look for that distinguished each one from the other. As an added benefit, the tasting room is also full of different art that we could explore and talk about as we savored the wine in our glasses. On the left are a couple pieces in our tasting room - what looks like maybe sails in glass are actually stacked vintage shirt collars. Very cool and much more interesting and engaging than most tasting rooms.

What you should do: If you're in Yountville and want to try something unique on your wine tasting tour (instead of just going from winery to winery, trying to survive on 1 oz tastes), this is the place for you. They are by appointment only on the tastings, so plan ahead. We definitely plan to go back - after all, the art was beautiful and they have several more wines that we didn't get to. So, why wouldn't we?