Villa Vevrier -2011- Today

The summer of 2011 was the last honest season at Villa Vevrier. Before the money moved in permanently. Before the hedges grew wild and the salt spray began to pit the terrace ironwork.

In 2011, Villa Vevrier was neither renovated nor ruined. It was suspended. The bougainvillea had overtaken the western pergola, but the kitchen clock still ticked. The library’s leather chairs were split, but the records—hundreds of them—were still alphabetized. It was a house that had stopped performing for anyone. Villa Vevrier -2011-

Designed by an anonymous protege of Jean Nouvel, the 2011 iteration of Villa Vevrier rejected the ostentatious palazzos of its neighbors in favor of a "living prism." The structure uses low-iron glass and raw basalt stone to reflect the sky and sea, making the villa appear to dissolve at sunset. The summer of 2011 was the last honest

The 2011 growing season at Villa Vevrier was one of defiance. While the rest of Bordeaux struggled with a capricious spring, the microclimate of the Vevrier estate—tucked into a rain shadow at the base of the Massif Central—produced a vintage of startling clarity. In 2011, Villa Vevrier was neither renovated nor ruined