Penning Landscapes Wins 2025 CLCA Installation Sweepstakes at Domaine Chandon

Napa’s Penning Landscapes Honored for Domaine Chandon Work in 2025 CLCA Installation Awards

Napa, United States – June 10, 2026 / Penning Landscapes /

A boutique Napa firm best known for long-term estate and winery care adds a top installation honor to a record built primarily on maintenance.

Napa, CA. May 14, 2026. Penning Landscapes, the family-owned, single-source landscape firm caring for Napa Valley and Sonoma County estates and wineries since 1988, has received the 2025 Installation Sweepstakes award from the North Coast Chapter of the California Landscape Contractors Association (CLCA). The honor recognizes the firm’s installation work at Domaine Chandon, one of Napa Valley’s landmark winery estates.

Recognition across more than two decades

The Installation Sweepstakes is awarded for technical excellence and site-appropriate execution. For Penning Landscapes, it is the most recent in a body of work that now spans 17 CLCA awards across 22 years, alongside a Gardenista feature on the Galleron Vegetable Garden and inclusion in the National Association of Landscape Professionals’ Level Up series.

What the award record makes clear is where the firm’s deepest experience sits. Thirteen of those 17 CLCA honors are in maintenance categories, including both of Penning’s statewide trophies: the 2004 John Redmond Memorial Award for Best Landscape Maintenance Entry and the 2022 CLCA State Trophy Award. The Domaine Chandon recognition reflects the build side of a practice whose long-running strength is the ongoing care of high-value properties.

One team, from build to long-term care

Penning Landscapes operates as a single-source firm. Design, installation, irrigation, water resource management, lighting, plant health, and ongoing maintenance are delivered by one in-house team. That structure is the reason the firm has held relationships with Napa Valley and Sonoma County estates and wineries across generations of property ownership.

The model matters most on a winery estate, where guest-facing gardens, hospitality grounds, lighting, architectural detail, and the irrigation that keeps it all healthy have to work as one. Coordinating that across multiple vendors is where most landscape programs break down, and keeping it under one in-house team is what Penning has built its practice around.

Penning’s strength in that ongoing care is recognized in winery settings, too. In 2024, the firm earned First Place for Medium Commercial Maintenance at Mayacamas Vineyards, recognition for the day-to-day stewardship that keeps a wine country property’s grounds looking their best year-round.

Credentials that hold up on a high-value property

Penning’s in-house team includes QWEL-certified technicians for water-efficient landscape management, certified through the California Water Efficiency Partnership, which carries WaterSense recognition from the EPA. The team also includes lighting specialists and a dedicated vegetable garden manager, Gemme Von Knopka, whose work on estate kitchen gardens has been featured in Gardenista.

“Winning the Installation Sweepstakes for our work at Domaine Chandon means a great deal to our crew. Build projects like that one are how a lot of our relationships start. Where we really make our mark is in the years that follow, on the estates and wineries we care for season after season with the same in-house team. That long-term stewardship is what most of these awards over the years reflect, and it’s what the properties we maintain are really hiring us for.”

— Ben Penning, CEO, Penning Landscapes

About Penning Landscapes

Penning Landscapes is a family-owned landscape firm based in Napa, California. Founded in 1988, the firm designs, builds, and maintains gardens for estates and wineries across Napa Valley and Sonoma County. The Penning team offers landscape maintenance, vegetable gardening, irrigation, lighting, plant health, and design and build, all in-house, with QWEL-certified technicians on the team for water-efficient landscape management. Recognition includes 17 California Landscape Contractors Association awards across more than two decades, with statewide trophies for maintenance excellence in 2004 (John Redmond Memorial Award) and 2022 (CLCA State Trophy Award), a 2024 First Place Medium Commercial Maintenance win at Mayacamas Vineyards, a 2025 Installation Sweepstakes for design-build work at Domaine Chandon, a Gardenista feature on the Galleron Vegetable Garden, and inclusion in the National Association of Landscape Professionals’ Level Up series. Penning is led by CEO Ben Penning, second-generation owner.

Media contact: Ben Penning, CEO

Penning Landscapes

68 Coombs Street, Suite D11, Napa, CA 94559

(707) 255-8129 · hello@penninglandscapes.com · penninglandscapes.com