CASTELLO DI AMOROSA

Daryl Sattui’s New Place

by Richard Paul Hinkle
You can redeem your Alitalia tickets. There is no longer any need to fly to Florence to see a centuries-old castle, complete with drawbridge, towers, torture chamber, great hall, medieval church and confessional. Daryl Sattui has built one, right here in the Napa Valley, and brother does it look like the real thing. I’ve been to Italy more than a dozen times, and I’ve seen ancient dank castles up close, and this project is so authentic that you automatically want to genuflect upon entering the church and tense up when viewing the “rack” or the “iron maiden” in the underground torture chamber. The only things missing are cobwebs and underground water seepage. Trust me, those will come.
Bottom line? Daryl’s having fun again. This is the guy who opened V. Sattui – right out there in the open on Highway 29 – complete with picnic tables to help visitors better understand wine. As he always liked to say, “If somebody walks out of our tasting room without a bottle of wine in their hand, it wasn’t the customer who blew it; we blew it!”
This is the guy who went to Italy – the home of his great grandfather Vittorio (for whom the winery is named) – to refurbish an ancient monastery and, oh yeah, make a little olive oil, make a little wine.
And – here’s the big finish – this is the guy who has spent the last dozen-plus years putting together an honest-to-god “castle” (yes, there’s a moat, though it’s dry) south of Calistoga. A winery-castle. A $30 million winery-castle! It’s called Castello di Amorosa. “The castle of love.”
“Well, I kind of like medieval architecture,” shrugs the tall, rangy, olive-eyed Sattui, whose great grandfather made wine in his San Francisco basement more than a hundred years ago. Daryl himself – after financing his college years selling wooden shoes – started
V. Sattui Winery on the south side of St. Helena back in the “dark ages” … 1975. “We paired cheese and wine to make wine an easier sell,” he once told me. “I even knew that I had to be north of Oakville and south of Lodi Lane to get folks at their hungriest.” The walnut-tree-shaded picnic tables didn’t hurt.
If this marvelous Tuscan-castle-winery hasn’t covered all of Daryl’s fantasies, we probably don’t want to know what’s missing. “Yes, we do have a rack reproduction, and an antique iron maiden that I bought for thirteen grand in Pienza, Italy,” he says, twirling the fictitious ends of his fictitious mustache. The main underground barrel cellar is 135 feet long, with more than three dozen cross vaults. Upstairs is the great hall, 72 by 30 feet, with a 22-foot vaulted (coffered) ceiling and fresco-covered walls. There are brightly-colored banners fluttering from the battlements, and there are even ducts to pour hot oil on the invading hordes.
And there are some pretty good wines to back up the bang of the exquisitely-fitted basalt walls. Try the Napa Valley Pinot Grigio 2005 ($20), with its stony, crisp apple and fennel aromas, or the sappy-red-apple-juicy Pinot Bianco 2005 Carneros ($24). “We’re focusing on Italian-styled wines,” says Sattui with a justifiably pleased look.
There is a lovely 2005 rosé ($19) called Gioia (“joy”) made from Sangiovese that is alive with strawberry fruitiness, and a Super Tuscan – a blend of 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese called “La Castellana” (“the woman that runs the castle” $48) – that is almost delicate with cassis and strawberry fruit. Its companion wine, called “Il Barone” (“the baron who pretends to run the castle”), is made solely from Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 ($68), and is thickly solid with blackberry and violet fruit. This one will need a bit of time in bottle. For dessert there is the 2005 “Il Raggio del Sole” (“sunburst”), a Muscat Cannelli that is all grape and honeysuckle aromas and flavors. Just the thing with a little fresh fruit … sitting atop the battlements to await the attack of the barbarians.
“We’re already booking events like crazy,” says Sattui with delight. “Carmen Policy [ex-head of the SF 49ers] and Joe Montana have been here, two governors [Arnold and New York’s Pateki] have been here, and the Russian National Orchestra is to play here. It’s been pretty exciting.”
Castello di Amorosa is located at 4045 N. St. Helena Highway (just north of Peterson Drive, just south of Maple) 2-1/2 miles south of Calistoga. For more information, phone (707) 942-8200 or go to the website at www.castellodiamorosa.com. Tasting fee is $10. Tasting and tour is $25. (No tour without tasting.)

Related Information

• V. Sattui Winery