Home & Garden Attendees of this year’s Kitchens in the Vineyards Contemporary Oasis Article by KARI RUEL Photos by ART & CLARITY Award-winning composer and designer wife transform a Napa Valley home home tour will step into modern history, if that is possible. A house that was originally built by philanthropists Peter and Vernice Gasser in 1984 and named “Casa de Vernice” was showcased in the 1990 Designers Show House. Another iconic couple, Vince and Mildred De Domenico, owners of the Napa Valley Wine Train and the Rice-a-Roni empire, purchased the property after Vernice passed away in 1989. Now another prominent couple has completely renovated the former “Beverly Hills of Napa” into a modern, open, resort-like abode with European influences. Award-winning composer for film and TV scores Graeme Revell and his wife, Victoria, an interior designer, used their inspiration from their worldwide travels when designing the look of their new home in 2010. “We called the house the ‘Old Beverly Hills’ of Napa because of the Mexican tiles and the closed-in feeling,” said Graeme. “It was a nice house, but it wasn’t our style. We loved that it was on twentysix acres next to a vineyard.” “I couldn’t wait to get into the house and get started, because I could see beyond what was in front of us,” said Victoria. The Napa home is in stark contrast to the couple’s former Las Vegas home. Graeme, originally from New Zealand, was working in Las Vegas on a Cirque du Soleil-type show when he was introduced to Victoria. They married, had a daughter, now age seven, and in 2007, decided to travel the world on a 130-foot yacht. Their plan was to continue to home school their daughter on the boat, but news came that Victoria was pregnant with their now three-year-old son. “I did not want to be pregnant on the boat, so we moved back to Vegas,” said Victoria. “We quickly realized that Vegas was not a place to raise kids.” “We could have moved anywhere in the world, and we were looking at France and Italy, but we found it hard to work in those countries,” said Graeme. “We seriously considered Monterey, because I collect cars, but we found the fog too dreary.” Graeme brought Victoria to Napa to take a balloon ride for her birthday and they both fell in love with the Valley. “Napa Valley is an ideal location for us,” said Graeme. “Besides being a beautiful place, you can live and work here.” “The minute we walked onto this property we knew this would be a great place for the kids to grow up,” added Victoria. “The location was perfect. There was grass. We also loved the property with the garden walls.” Graeme, a graduate of economics and politics from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, became a keen observer of both traditional ethnic music and natural sound. He started a scoring career after picking up on rhythms in patient vocalizations at an Australian hospital for the mentally ill, where he worked as an orderly. Graeme incorporated recordings of the patients into his music, in an early example of the creative use of sound which would become a hallmark of his later work in motion pictures. “Movie director George Miller was directing Dead Calm – Nicole Kidman’s breakout film – and they were struggling to find anything interesting for a musical score, and they heard my music,” recalled Graeme. “It was a cross between a railroad yard, two opera singers, a cello, African drumming and heavy breathing, and it just fit perfectly.” 18 www. n A PAVA L L E Y L I F Emagaz ine . com
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