Del Dotto Vineyards is a winery “going places” and having a lot of fun at the same time. Owner Dave Del Dotto also founded Del Dotto Vineyards in Rutherford and has more recently opened Piazza del Dotto in Oakville along Highway 29 (just north north of Yountville).
Del Dotto Vineyards is located just down the street from the Silverado Country Club – there is very little signage in front, but look for all the ivy covering a historic looking building on the west side of the road. Early on in our work on the Napa Wine Project we were tired of those in the Napa wine industry asking us if we’ve been to Del Dotto and only being able to reply in the negative. So we finally joined one of their infamous tours. During our first and subsequent visits, Botticelli arias were echoing throughout the winery. Sometimes those in the local wine industry will refer to their tour as “Dumplotto” due to their tendency to provide lots of wine on the tour. Our tour guide even referred to this term during the tour.
The tour is 90 minutes and for most of it, you walk through the very historical caves which were hand dug in 1885. You wander around following your guide from one wine barrel to the next sampling wine. That is the core of the tour. Because of this focus, you taste a lot of wine here – if you like a particular wine, you can even request another taste. Each barrel that you taste has laminated cards in front describing the wine – if you like the wine from a particular barrel and are ok with the price take the card with you.
This is by far the most humorous tour that we’ve been on in the Napa Valley. You will be laughing. If its busy there may be several tours circulating through the caves at once – the tour guides all seemed to be extremely happy with big smiles across their faces (our guide was enjoying each barrel sample along with our group).
One side cave portal we entered was completely covered with slimy moss and our guide told us that if you lick it with your tongue, you would probably end up naked in a desert somewhere. Try their “mofo” barrel blends – which in this case is not a derogatory term, rather it stands for “Missouri Oak, French Oak” aged. Red stoppers in a barrel means that barrel is already sold out. One of their barrels is a Colbert barrel manufactured by the cooper Nadalie (at the time of our initial visit many years ago was running about $1,600 each – certainly much more expensive now). The oak for these barrels are from France – and only approximately 200 of these types of barrels are made every year.
The tour begins with an intriguing and educational display about oak barrels. Del Dotto has long been known for conducting significant amounts of experimentation with various oak and oak sources including not only from France and the USA but also from Russia, Hungary and Italy. Oak trees in France have to be at least 80 years old by law before they can be cut down. One of their French Oak barrels has staves (wood) from 9 different coopers (suppliers).
Their wines consistently receive high awards. The highlights of the wines we tasted were their Cabernet Sauvignons and various red blends. Also their Cabernet Franc was excellent – you cannot always find a balanced Cabernet Franc in Napa. In addition they offer several different port-style wines (only one is included for tasting on the tour). Del Dotto understands the importance of having top brandy fortified in their ports. One of Napa’s best Port houses is “behind” the brandy which contributes to the high quality of these ports – and its not Prager. Hint,, Del Dotto’s brandy supplier is located on Spring Mountain.
The winery has offered an impressive collection of International wines for sale in the past as well as small more-difficult to find wines from other Napa Valley wineries. At one point they were probably the only winery in the valley to offer such a variety of wines to consumers.
Del Dotto started with a small production – as they have acquired vineyard land in both the Napa Valley and in Sonoma County as well as opened additional wineries, their production has certainly grown. As of our last update they are now producing approximately 20,000 cases of wine per year. The family owns owns and operates two other memorable propties in the valley – their estate in Rutherford and Piazza del Dotto in Oakville (both of which we have reviewed separately on this website).
Dave Del Dotto traces his family back hundreds of years to Venice and honors his Italian cultural heritage in each of his wineries in a number of ways – often Italian music will be playing, much of the furnishing and decor in his wineries were imported from Italy and while using modern wine making techniques he also uses or has used old world wine making traditional techniques.
Prior to his work in the wine world, Dave was well-known for a nationally syndicated program about get-rich investment strategies. He even wrote a book titled How to Make Nothing but Money.
Cautionary note #1: When you pull into their street side parking area in front of the winery – there is a steep drop off next to part of this parking area, and we’ve waited out here several times to see cars totally bottom out as they drive off the road into the small parking strip. Move further down this parking strip and the steep drop off becomes much less pronounced. If parking is maxed out in front of the winery – note that there is plenty more parking on the south side and around the back of the winery.
Cautionary note #2: And also be acutely aware that the part of Atlas Peak Road (in front of their driveway) is a divided road; don’t make the mistake of pulling out of Del Dotto and driving the wrong direction (like we have witnessed several times during our numerous visits to this winery).
Dave and his family also own the old Girard Winery (which we have already visited) on Pritchard Hill – as of late 2017, they are in the process of building a luxury 8-room boutique hotel. For more information about their wines and or to schedule either a tasting or a tour + tasting, visit: www.deldottovineyards.com
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