Trefethen Family Vineyards – One Family. One Estate. One Passion.

A BIT OF HISTORY

Gene and Catherine Trefethen moved to Napa Valley in 1968 and created a 600-acre wine estate by purchasing six small farms and the old 1886 Eshcol Winery. Gene’s son, John, and daughter-in law, Janet, produced their first commercial vintage in the renovated winery in 1973. More than 40 years later, Trefethen Vineyards has a few notable distinctions. It continues to be a family business with John running the winery, Janet managing all marketing efforts, and their children, Loren and Hailey, working at the winery full time. In 1988, the winery was recognized as a National Historic Landmark. And Trefethen is one of the only American wineries that has never purchased a single outside grape to make its wines.

THE EXPERIENCE

Trefethen is one of those wineries you need to plug into the GPS navigation system – it’s on Oak Knoll Avenue off of Highway 29 in Napa. If you're not looking for the road sign, it's easy to miss. Once you turn onto Oak Knoll, you need to do a series of left turns to get to the winery parking lot. It’s a beautiful drive and worth the extra five minutes. The driveway runs through the middle of the vineyards and ends at the historic winery and tasting room.

John and I visited Trefethen on a Saturday with two of his friends from the sommelier course, Frank and Mark. We got to the winery at about 10:15am – it was right after they opened, so there were only a few other visitors. As we entered the lobby, we were welcomed by three of the tasting room staff. One of the associates, Keith, took us around the corner and into the tasting room. Keith is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, NY and is planning to take the sommelier exam so there was a lot of discussion about the test and how everyone was preparing for it. As a professionally trained chef, Keith also does a lot of Trefethen’s food / wine pairings and events (Twilight at Trefethen) – some of his recipes and pairing recommendations sounded amazing. Keith was friendly, really knowledgeable about the wines, and passionate about how food and wine go together to provide the ultimate tasting experience.  

The Trefethen tasting room was warm and inviting with lots of wood and deep red hues.  It was decorated for the holidays with twinkle lights, Christmas trees and holiday displays. I really liked the tasting room because it felt roomy and relaxed. There were two bars at different ends, as well as a few overstuffed chairs and some barrel tables (wine barrels turned into high cocktail tables). While the tasting room filled up, the variety of bar and seating options enabled everyone to spread out and enjoy the wines with their friends and family. Additionally, there was a really pretty side room set up for private tastings.

The tasting room features a “tasting passport” of two options – an Estate Tasting and a Winemaker’s Reserve Tasting. The Estate Tasting is $10 and you choose four wines from a total of eight featured wines (the tasting wines that day included a 2009 Dry Riesling, 2008 Chardonnay, 2008 Viognier, 2008 Quandary – a white blend, 2007 Cabernet Franc, 2006 Merlot, 2007 Double T Red – a “Bordeaux blend”, and a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon). The Winemaker’s Reserve Tasting is $25 and includes a selection of five special, limited release wines (our featured wines included a 2007 Harmony Chardonnay, 2008 Pinot Noir, 2007 Dragon’s Tooth, 2002 Library Cabernet, 2006 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon).

Sometimes it pays to hang out with the sommelier guys as Keith poured wines for us from both tasting options. My favorite wines were the 2007 Dragon’s Tooth, the 2002 Library Cabernet and the 2006 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.  Dragon’s Tooth is a blend of 61% Malbec, 22% Petit Verdot, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc. It’s got a deep purple color and aromas of berries, cherries and chocolate. In addition to the jammy fruit, it tastes of oak, nutmeg, chocolate and spices – the Petit Verdot gives it a nice peppery kick. Yum.

During our tasting, Keith treated us to a private tour of the barrel room and the historic production area.  When John and Janet Trefethen restored the winery, they kept the Eshcol winery’s original de-stemmer/crusher and the gravity-flow system. Trefethen was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as the only 19^th-century wooden gravity-flow winery in Napa Country. The barrel room is gorgeous with its casks and painted barrels that are used to age the winery’s Bordeaux variety red wines.  

TOURS AND TIDBITS
In addition to the Estate and Reserve tastings, Trefethen offers tours and special tastings.  There’s a 30-minute winery tour daily at 10:30am and includes a tasting of the current releases ($25/guest) and a “Twilight at Trefethen” event on Friday evenings at 6pm that features a private reception, winery tour and barrel tastings ($100/guest). 

OTHER DETAILS

Trefethen Family Vineyards
1160 Oak Knoll Avenue, Napa, CA 94558
707.255.7700 / 866.895.7696
Wine tasting hours: 10:00am to 4:30pm daily
Tours by reservation: 10:30am daily

Castello di Amorosa – Napa Valley’s Castle of Love

A BIT OF HISTORY

Dario Sattui is no stranger to the wine business – he’s the great grandson of Vittorio Sattui, who founded V. Sattui Winery in 1885. The original winery, located in San Francisco, was shut down due to Prohibition. In 1975, Dario re-established the V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena.

In 1993, Dario purchased a 171-acre vineyard property in Calistoga and began construction on his 12^th-century style Tuscan castle winery as a tribute to both his Italian ancestry and his love of medieval architecture. After almost 14 years of construction, Castello di Amorosa opened in April of 2007. The 121,000 square foot castle features 107 rooms (95 are for wine), 8 levels (4 are underground), 900 feet of caves, a great hall with a 500-year-old fireplace and two-story Italian frescoes, a drawbridge, dungeon and torture chamber, stables, medieval church, a lake, and a wine barrel room constructed with ancient Roman cross-vaulted ceilings.

Castello di Amorosa produces approximately 16,000 cases of Italian style wines per year. All production takes place at the winery. Additionally, all wines are sold direct to the consumer from the winery or online. 

TASTING AND TOURING

Castello di Amorosa is different than most wineries in that you must pay a fee to enter the castle. The $17 entrance fee includes a premium tasting of up to five wines in the main tasting bar ($26 gets you a reserve tasting of up to six wines). You may be able to tour a couple of the levels on your own, but you’ll miss some of the key sites, including the torture chamber, the production areas and the barrel rooms. For $32, you can take a 1-1/2 hour guided tour of the castle and the winery, including a premium tasting of five wines and a barrel tasting in the private tasting bar ($42 covers the tour, barrel tasting and six wines, including reserve wines). Castello di Amorosa was seen in Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories and ABC’s The Bachelor. The workmanship and the detail are amazing and should not be missed. To make your “taste or tour” decision even easier, NapaValley.com features a special 2 for 1 offer on a premium tour and tasting. 

THE EXPERIENCE

Our castle guide was Bradford Reed. He kept the tour interesting and entertaining with stories of the castle, its history and some of the artifacts. Bradford also did a great job keeping track of the group – there are so many different tunnels underground that it would be very easy to get lost. Dario Sattui was at the winery during our tour and gave a quick wave as we passed him in the courtyard.

Our tour began in the Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel. A Latin Mass is held in the chapel every Sunday at 8:30am. After the chapel, we visited the Courtyard, the Great Hall and one of the towers for some history before heading downstairs to the very modern tank room and crush pad. 



After visiting the production areas, one of the castle gates was opened for us and we went back in time. We continued underground, past a suit of armor and a collection of armor masks, heading down to the torture chamber. Complete with three prisoner cells, the chamber featured a collection of torture devices, including an antique iron maiden, a chair of spikes and a beheading block. We continued through the maze of underground caves and tunnels to the grand barrel room for a barrel tasting. At the end of the barrel room was the private tasting bar. 

The bar was set up with glasses, a tasting binder (with full descriptions of each wine available to taste), and a tasting sheet / order form and pencil for each guest. The premium tasting menu included white and rosé wines (Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Dry Gewürztraminer, Rosato di Sangiovese), red wines (Sangiovese, Merlot, Il Brigante – a red blend, Cabernet Sauvignon) and sweet wines (Il Raggio Del Sole – a Muscato, La Fantasia – an Italian sparkling, Late Harvest Gewürztraminer). The reserve tasting menu offered additional white and red reserve wines (Chardonnay, La Castellana – a super Tuscan blend, Il Barone – a Cabernet Sauvignon, Il Passito – late harvest Semillon / Sauvignon Blanc). There were more whites and sweet wines than I expected. The wines were good, but not outstanding. My favorites were the Il Brigrante, La Fantasia and Il Barone. La Fantasia was an unexpected surprise.  It's a soft sparkling wine with a cherry hue and black raspberry / strawberry flavors.  It's not too sweet either – a good wine to sip on a warm summer night.

At the end of the tasting, Bradford led us through the gift shop and into the main tasting room where he ended the tour. The main tasting room is set up in a rectangle with the tasting bars in the middle and wine / products around the outside. The tasting bars were packed with visitors – it just reinforced that the Tour and Tasting option (with the private tasting bar) was the way to go. In addition to people trying to stand at the bar and taste, there were others milling about, either trying to find the wine they wanted to buy or checking out all of the wine tchotchkes for sale. There are baskets to carry your wine and other purchases to the registers at the end of the tasting room. The baskets are fine if you want to purchase a bottle or two, but if you want more, just take your tasting sheet / order form to the cashier and let them pull the bottles for you.

Outside of the main tasting room are some of the orchards. You’ll see the resident sheep milling about. You may also catch a glimpse of the castle cat hunting in the grass “moat” on the side of the castle.

TIDBITS

If you are planning a visit to Castello di Amorosa, make a tour reservation in advance. In addition to the premium and reserve tours and tasting, the winery also offers chocolate pairing options and horse-drawn vineyard tour. 

OTHER DETAILS

Castello di Amorosa

4045 North St. Helena Highway (Highway 29), Calistoga, CA, 94515

707.967.6272

Wine tasting hours: 9:30am to 5:00pm November - February, 9:30am to 6:00pm March - October.  Tours: 9:30am and 4:30pm Weekdays, 9:30am and 5:00pm Weekends & Holidays.

I Confess.

I fell in love with wine about 18 years ago.  My husband, John, and I visited his family in California and decided to take a day trip to the Napa Valley.  We toured the Christian Brothers Winery (now the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone), tasted some amazing wines and purchased a few bottles.

Back in New Jersey, John and I moved into our first home and decided to celebrate with one of our California wines.  We opened a bottle of Christian Brothers port and paired it with a cheese platter of a few really strong (and stinky) cheeses as instructed by the nice people at the CB tasting room.  I knew that port wine was called a fortified wine, but didn’t know that because of its high sugar and alcohol content, we should be sipping instead of slurping.  With its deep hue and mouth-watering flavors of dark berry and plum, the wine paired so well with the cheeses – we couldn’t stop.  We finished the cheese plate AND the bottle of port.  The next day I suffered the consequences of over-indulgence, but my love affair with wine was just beginning.

In 1996, we moved to California and visited wineries in Mendocino, Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley, Livermore, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Carmel Valley and Paso Robles.  For three years, I volunteered in the tasting room at Picchetti Winery in Cupertino, CA.  I got to meet people from all over the world, educate them on the history of the winery and its vineyards, and pour great wines – plus, I got paid in wine.  My husband also worked at the winey as an assistant winemaker, so I got to help out with harvest every year.  I did punch downs, cleaned tanks, painted barrels (with wine) and tested barrel samples.  Very unglamorous, but so much fun.

Friends and family always ask, "Which wineries should I visit?"  That's such a difficult question to answer as everyone has different likes and dislikes (reds, whites, sparkling, dessert, big, fruit-forward, dry, sweet and so on). I make my recommendations based on the wines and the tasting room experience. A winery can produce phenomenal wines, but if they don’t treat you well, it’s going to leave a bad taste in your mouth.  The tasting room is often your introduction to a winery and it needs to make a good first impression.  The tasting room personnel should make you feel welcome.  They should help you explore and enjoy their wines.  They should want you to love their wines as much as they do. 

This blog is about my experiences at tasting rooms.  I’ll share my feedback on first impressions, friendliness and knowledge of the tasting room personnel, variety of wines on the tasting list, tasting fees, tours and other interesting facts or tidbits.  Rather than go from memory of previous tasting room visits, I’m starting from scratch and will add wineries as I go.  If you’re on your way to Wine Country and need a recommendation, feel free to email me and I’ll point you in the direction of my favorites. 

Happy Tasting!