A celebration of harvest season in Northern California, our Napa Valley candle—created in collaboration with Napa's Solage Auberge Resort—is an earthy, rich, grounding fragrance that has become an autumnal favorite for those who love wine... and even those who don't.

Below, our founder shares a bit more about the backstory of how the scent came to be.

Why did you partner with Solage to debut Napa Valley? Why does this property encapsulate the essence and scents of fall?

I first visited Solage on assignment for a magazine back in 2014, and immediately fell in love, not only with the property, but with the landscape that surrounded it. When I returned in 2022, during the peak of harvest season, it was even more magical than I had remembered.

There's a very specific scent that blankets the region during harvest—locals and winemakers describe it as the rich smell of the soil right before the grapes get picked. It's earthy, ripe, slightly sweet... and undeniably unique.

I knew it was the type of scent that would make for a mind-blowing fall candle, and I also knew that if we were going to partner with a hotel to launch it, it absolutely had to be Solage. 

We started chatting with the Auberge team shortly after my trip, and following the success of our collaboration with the Hotel Jerome (an Auberge Resort) they were immediately on board. 

How were the scent notes and design of the candle inspired by Solage?

The inspiration for the candle came not only from the warm, inviting energy of the hotel, but also the land itself, and the process of making its famous wine: minerality of dirt, crisp air, ripe fruit, winding vines, oak barrels.

One of the most memorable aspects of Solage, to me, are the teeming mulberry trees found throughout—so we knew that mulberry notes would also be integral to the fragrance.

For the design, we really leaned into the rich color of red wine. Both the outside packaging and the vessel itself are a saturated shade of Cabernet. 

And as a special touch, we decided to include a small gift tag on each candle that was inspired by the hotel's signature luggage tags.

What is the process when designing a candle with a specific location or property in mind?

The process is pretty organic, and usually starts when I have a lightbulb moment while visiting a new destination or property.

From there, I'll start thinking about how we might translate the essence of a place into a scent, and then we consider how the visual elements would help support the fragrance story.

For the Napa Valley candle, everything came together fairly quickly—the scent notes, the packaging, and the hotel felt like a perfect marriage.