
Steel-and-Sapele vineyard entry
Designed to frame the vineyard view rather than block it — the upper third is open steel so the sightline down the rows survives from the road.

Napa properties run long, often with the nearest power at the winery building rather than the road. Automation planning here is a trenching and conduit exercise as much as an operator selection, and battery backup is standard rather than optional given valley-floor outage frequency.



An automatic gate is two builds in one: the gate itself, and the operator system that drives it. We design and engineer both in-house. The gate is built from hardwood or steel (or both) to your architectural vision; the operator system is sized for the gate's weight, wind load, duty cycle, and access pattern.
In Napa we install FAAC, LiftMaster, Viking, and Nice operators most often. Selection depends on gate weight, swing or slide configuration, daily cycle count, and whether the system needs battery backup for power outages. Every install includes UL325 safety: loop detectors at entry and exit, photo eyes, sensing edges where required, and clearly placarded warning signs.
Access control is configured to how you actually use the property — keypad entry, RFID, intercom (audio or video), smart-home integration with Apple HomeKit / Google Home / Alexa, telephone entry, license-plate recognition, and remote management apps. We size the system to last; we don't oversell features that won't get used.
Installation in Napa typically takes two to four days. Post-install we provide a written maintenance schedule, set up your access codes and remotes, and walk you through the safety systems. Most operator issues we've seen in the field come from skipped annual service — we offer maintenance contracts to make sure that doesn't happen.
Napa estates lean Mediterranean, modern farmhouse, and contemporary winery vernacular — gates often anchor long vineyard driveways. Wine-country UV is brutal and fog-cycling between Carneros and the valley floor stresses any unprotected finish — we spec marine-grade penetrating oils.

Designed to frame the vineyard view rather than block it — the upper third is open steel so the sightline down the rows survives from the road.

Wind off the Carneros gap made a swing leaf a liability. The slide runs on a concealed cantilever with a slatted face that lets gusts through instead of catching them.

The owners wanted the valley visible from the path without an open gate. A single circular cutout at eye height frames the view and does the whole job.
Wide horizontal timber, blackened steel edge banding, and a deliberately agricultural proportion. It borrows from barn doors without imitating them.
Arched Sapele leaves with iron grille inserts still dominate the Silverado corridor. We keep the ironwork slim; heavy grille work fights the valley light.
Vertical board-and-batten with a matte black frame, scaled down for the tighter Old Town and Browns Valley lots where estate proportions would overwhelm the street.
"Our property is the gate. Heartwood's design team flew over and walked the site, then delivered a steel-and-Sapele estate entry that frames the vineyard view perfectly."
Heartwood Gates is headquartered in Concord, CA, roughly 26 miles from Napa. We serve the whole of Napa County within a 150-mile service radius of the shop, with a dedicated install crew on the road most weeks.
It depends on gate weight, daily cycles, and whether you need battery backup. FAAC underground operators are ideal for premium estates; LiftMaster surface-mount operators are workhorses for high-cycle residential gates. We recommend the right system after we measure the gate and walk the site.
Properly engineered, yes. We install every system to UL325 — loop detectors, photo eyes, sensing edges, and warning placards. Most safety incidents come from non-compliant installs; we don't cut those corners.
Yes. Every operator we install supports remote app control, and we integrate with Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and Alexa for whole-home automation.
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Tell us about the entrance you want to build. We respond same-day to consultations booked before 2pm, next business day after.