Madonna Estate is located in the Napa Los Carneros AVA directly next to the often busy Highway 12 (their parking lot is accessible via Old Sonoma Road). The winery is owned by the Bartolucci's, one of the oldest wine making families in Napa Valley. Andrea "Andy" Bartolucci first came to Napa Valley in 1913 from a small village along the Adriatic coast, in … [Read more...]

Napa Cellars is located about a 5 minute drive north of Yountville on the west side of Highway 29 directly across the driveway from Piazza del Dotto Winery. It is one of the first few wineries seen as one drives north from the town of Napa and a result of their location often makes a good stop for first time visitors to the valley. As of 2018 the focus of … [Read more...]

Oakville Ranch is a beautiful hillside estate property located in the Oakville appellation in the hills on the east side of Napa Valley at an elevation of about 1,000 feet. Their location is among some of the most premium vineyard real estate in the valley - with several prestigious wineries as neighbors (including Ovid and Dalla Valle). They are not open to … [Read more...]

Page Wine Cellars was founded in 1997 with a tiny production of just 36 cases. This winery is not to be confused with Page Cellars based in Woodinville, WA. The winery and winemaking are operated by Bryan Page and his brother Chris. We first met Bryan at a tasting in San Francisco sometime around 2007. For many years, the winery was in a warehouse location … [Read more...]

Quintessa Winery is an architecturally intriguing winery located on the west side of the Silverado Trail just north of Rutherford Cross Road. The estate encompasses 280 acres of which approximately 135 acres are planted to vine. The winery was founded in 1989 by well-known Chilean vintners Agustin Huneeus and his wife Valeria. Vines were first planted in … [Read more...]

Quixote Winery, from the exterior, is visually one of Napa Valley's most intriguing wineries (construction was completed in 2000). Quixote resembles a building out of a fairy tale; the reason being is that it was designed by the famous Viennese creative (often working in the nude) artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He was born in Austria as Friedrich … [Read more...]

R.A. Harrison Family Cellars (not to be confused with another Napa Valley based winery William Harrison) is run by Roger Allen Harrison who spent 32 years at Beringer Winery working on their Nightingale wine project before leaving in 2014 to concentrate on his own wines. He was trained on making botrysized wines (noble rot) by the husband wife team of Myron … [Read more...]

Saddleback Cellars is located off of the small residential & vineyard surrounded Money Road - about 1/2 way down the Oakville Cross Road. Astute followers of Orange County California trivia will note a similarity between this wineries' name and two prominent mountain peaks in the Santa Ana range called Saddleback. In addition, there is a dip in the Vaca … [Read more...]

Tamber Bey Vineyards produced their first commercial vintage in 2001 (merely 150 cases) and now crafts over 5,000 cases a year and growing. In late summer 2013, Tamber Bey moved their winemaking and hospitality to a 22-acre site (Sundance Ranch) located a few minutes drive north of the center of Calistoga. In this far northern part of Napa Valley, there … [Read more...]

V. Sattui Winery. The original V Sattui Winery was founded in 1885 by Vittorio Sattui in San Francisco. He emigrated to California 3 years prior from Carsi, a small remote mountain town north of Genova in northern Italy. The closest larger community to Carsi is Busalla, about a 30 minute drive and is where we stayed due to the number of restaurants and … [Read more...]