Pair your Pinot with a Haring

WINE ISN'T THE ONLY THING THAT GETS TO BREATHE AT THE DONUM ESTATE, WHERE LARGE-SCALE ARTWORKS ARE GIVEN ROOM TO ROAM

- BY SAM LUBELL

OLAFUR Eliasson's "Vertical Panorama Pavilion," from top left, Jaume Plensa's "Sanna," Richard Hudson's "Love Me" and Yang Bao’s "Hyperspace" are displayed at the Donum Estate, run by owners Mei and Allen Warburg, above, and CEO Angelica de Vere Mabray, left.

BRYAN LISCINSKY The Donum Estate

THE CARNEROS WINE REGION, which straddles Sonoma and Napa counties with its rolling, vine-textured hills and cool breezes meandering in from San Pablo Bay, boasts some of California's best wineries. But only one welcomes you at the top of its driveway with the serene, spectral presence of a 20-foot-tall alabaster head of a young girl, "Sanna," crafted by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. The Donum Estate, whose grounds showcase more than 60 monumental sculptures by the likes of Plensa, Louise Bourgeois, Ai Weiwei, Yayoi Kusama, Keith Haring, Doug Aitken, Robert Indian and Anselm Kiefer, to name a few, contains what is thought to be the largest private sculpture collection of any winery in the world. Some are boldly visible. Others are hidden in groves of trees or camouflaged within thick grasses. All of them can be visited by simply making a reservation. "People are always like, 'Why haven't I heard of this before?'" said tour guide Alexandra Reif as she walked me and a friend along a narrow pathway near the winery's entry.

The Donum Estate

Donum — Latin for "gift" — didn't begin as an art nirvana. First a dairy farm and then part of the historic Buena Vista Winery, the property was acquired by Danish entrepreneur Allan Warburg and three partners in 2008. By 2011, Warburg and his wife, Chinese-born art collector Mei Warburg, assumed full control of the site and began what would become an ambitious experiment/passion project.