Rising above the hills in the Napa Valley is Castello di Amorosa, which translates to the “castle of love” in Italian. Castello di Amorosa, an authentic-styled, 12th century Tuscan castle-winery complete with high walls and five defensive towers and over 30 acres of estate vineyards. It was built over a 15-year period by Dario Sattui, a fourth generation winemaker and owner of V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena, California. The Wall Street Journal cited Castello di Amorosa as a “must-see destination,” and more recently, the Contra Costa Times included Castello di Amorosa as one of the top destination wineries in the country. After decades of research, planning and studying medieval castles in Italy and Europe, Sattui commenced building in 1994. The Castello evolved to include 121,000 square feet, 107 rooms, (of which 95 are used for winemaking or wine storage) 8,000 tons of hand-squared stone, 8 levels (4 above ground, 4 below) 900 linear feet of caves, a great hall with two-story Italian frescoes, a drawbridge and a moat.
Can a winery elevate the craft of winemaking to a fine art? Of course it can. Can a winery dedicate itself as a temple to works of fine art? Why not? But can a winery that does one also achieve the other? Good question. Now, if you were to put that question to Bacchus, god of wine, mischief-maker and generally acknowledged originator of the practice of horsing around, we know just where he'd send you: straight to the horse's mouth. And not just any horse. He'd send you to Pegasus, the winged horse of ancient myth whose hooves brushed against the earth, unleashing the sacred spring of the muses. Lucky earth. That spring gave life to grapevines, and the wine that flowed from them inspired poetry and art in all who drank it.
Cuvaison Winery is situated on the historic Silverado Trail in northern Napa Valley. In 1969 Thomas Cotrell and Thomas Parkhill, both Silicon Valley engineers, founded Cuvaison with a 27-acre vineyard at the winery’s present location. New York publisher Oakleigh Thorne purchased the winery in 1974 and then appointed the Swiss-born Philip Togni as Winemaker. In 1979, the Schmidheiny family of Switzerland purchased Cuvaison as well as 400 acres of prime vineyard land in the Carneros region in southern Napa Valley. The fall of 1998 marked the purchase of the historic 170-acre Brandlin Ranch on Mt. Veeder.
Established in 1992, Dutch Henry Winery is a small family-owned and operated winery in Napa Valley. The Chafen family takes great pride in caring for and nurturing all aspects of the winery and vineyards. Less and Maggie Chafen have grown grapes in Napa Valley for nearly 20 years. Their son, Scott Chafen oversees the daily operations of Dutch Henry Winery
In August 2006, six years after we submitted our design to the Napa County Planning Department, we finally completed our winery. A simple, yet beautiful, state of the art redwood structure houses stainless steel tanks, a destemmer, a press, and all sorts of other ridiculously expensive equipment. The winery leads to a 6,000 square foot cave which was drilled into the hillside under Block 3 of our vineyard. The caves provide a cool, energy efficient, humid space for barrel ageing our wines. The winery and caves have become the perfect home for our grapes, the wine, and all of us here at Jericho Canyon Vineyard.
Paoletti Vineyards is located in the Calistoga district of the Napa Valley. The winery is situated between Sterling Vineyards to the west and Cuvaison Winery on the east with Clos Pagase Winery to the north. The Silverado Trail Vineyard where the winery is located was purchased by Gianni Paoletti in January 1989. After harvesting the Zinfandel and Petite Sirah. The Vineyard was replanted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese.
The Fahden vineyards and winery consists of 100 acres. It is located at 1200 feet, in a range of the Mayacamus Mountains, on a ridge above Calistoga. The property features panoramic views of Mt. St. Helena. Hans and Marie Fahden, natives of Hamburg, Germany, purchased the property in 1912. They were hard-workers who farmed the land growing grapes and then prunes, when Prohibition was enacted in 1920. Sixty years later, in 1980, Antone and Lyall Fahden, the third generation, decided they liked cabernet sauvignon better than prunes.
Reverie Winery specializes in producing ultra premium Bordeaux varietal blends that reflect the uniqueness of its terroir. The vineyard was principally planted in 1989 on St. George rootstock to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc and currently consists of Cabernet Sauvignon (2 clones on 14 acres); Cabernet Franc (6 acres); Merlot (2 clones on 6 acres) and small amounts of Petit Verdot, Malbec, Barbera, Tempranillo, Grenache and Roussanne. Production will be limited and will not exceed 2,500 cases. Reverie also produces the ASKiken wines.
Hugh Davies, President and Winemaker of Schramsberg, is devoted to carrying on his parent's vision: to create America's premier sparkling wines. His passion for constant refinement of vineyard sources and winemaking techniques is captured in each bottle. Our small winery spares no effort to create the complex bouquet, refreshing acidity and depth of flavors found in the finest of sparkling wines. Schramsberg grapes are sourced from 80 cool-climate vineyards located in four counties. In a century-old tradition rarely practiced today, the winemakers use barrel fermentation and barrel aging in the creation of our sparkling wines. After bottling, the wines are hand-stacked and hand-riddled in our historic Diamond Mountain caves. Our releases have been heralded as some of the best sparkling wines available in the world.
Climate - in the broad context of temperature, precipitation, prevailing wind and storm patterns as well as exposure to the sun - is of crucial importance for optimum fruit development and thus the quality of a vineyard. Storybook Mountain is located at the top of the Napa Valley, on an eastern slope of the Mayacamas Range whose ridges separate Napa from Sonoma. This gives us the desired eastern exposure, an orientation we share with many of the greatest vineyards in Bordeaux and Burgundy. Adequately warm weather for ripening is rarely a problem in the Napa Valley - and certainly not for us. Open to the morning sun and providing an oblique angle to the hot afternoon sun for a growing day of even temperature, an easterly exposure helps avoid both the heat spikes and heat accumulation that can occur on a late summer afternoon.
Von Strasser Winery is located in the Diamond Mountain region of the Napa Valley nestled between the towns of St. Helena and Calistoga. Diamond Mountain is situated in the Valley's western Mayacamas mountain range. Althought outwardly an inhospitable place for agriculture to take root, Diamond Mountain has long been known for producing some of the Napa Valley's most concentrated red wine. In fact, viticulture and wine making in the region dates back to at least the 1860's. As a champion of this rich heritage, in 1999 Rudy von Strasser spearheaded a committee of fellow property owners to petition the BATF to acknowledge Diamond Mountain as an official American Viticultural Area. In May 2001, Rudy's efforts came to fruition: "Diamond Mountain District" was declared as a unique AVA.
Vincent Arroyo Winery produces over 6,000 cases from estate vineyards. Every year we make Chardonnay, Cabernet, Petite Sirah, Merlot, Sangiovese and a couple red blends – in fact, our dog even makes a wine! We consider Petite Sirah to be our signature wine, and develop those vineyards into several different bottlings – a “Napa Valley” Petite Sirah which is a blend our many Petite Sirah vineyards; 2 vineyard designated Petite Sirahs, Greenwood Ranch and Rattlesnake Acres; a Winemaker’s Reserve Petite Sirah which is barrel-aged for 34 months; and a Petite Sirah Port. Most of these wines are sold on a waiting-list basis.
