V Sattui Winery

. The V Sattui winery is a beautiful place to visit any time of the year.

The “V” in V. Sattui is Vittorio—the founder of the winery. An Italian immigrant, Vittorio originally started the winery in San Francisco (delivering the wine door-to-door) but ceased operations in 1920 because of Prohibition. The winery was dormant for sixty years. In 1972 the label was “re-started” by Dario Sattui, Vittorio’s great-great grandson. Slowly, the winery grew into what it is today and although the buildings are relatively new, they appear to be from an earlier time—it does make one think there is an old-world connection.

Walking into the tasting room at V Sattui winery, you get the old-world charm some more—nothing art deco or nouveau here! It has an old wood floor (that creaks and is uneven in places) with a bar that wraps around the room—nothing fancy, and it fits. It turns out this room is actually the original winery. Even though the place is busy, the staff is attentive and the wine list is given to you. They are not on short supply of tasting options. V. Sattui makes many types of wine, from Riesling, Gamay, sparkling, Zinfandel, Cabernet…you name it! It isn't recommended that you attmep to try them all in one visit; instead picking your favorite wines and limiting what you taste. There is a fee to taste, but in Napa Valley that is not to be unexpected.

The wines themselves are interesting. The Sauvignon Blanc is good, crisp and the Marsangnier is a mixture of Marsanne and Viogner, with classic hints of floral and pear. The reds are equally as interesting. Their Russian River Syrah and Howell Mountain Zins and both were well-made and reasonably priced. The wines are well-made, solid and priced very well. Compared to other Napa Valley wineries, V. Sattui winery definitely gives you good “bang for your buck”.

One of the best features of the winery is the picnic grounds. Rumor has it that they got their permit for picnic grounds when Napa County was more lenient towards wineries having them. You will notice that most other wineries in Napa don’t have picnic grounds at all. When you use the grounds the winery asks that you only eat and drink the food and wine purchased there, which is not an unreasonable request.

Along with using their facility, you can also schedule a public tour of the winery facility as well. If you’ve never seen a winery or understand the process of winemaking from grape to glass, take a tour of the winery, you will learn a lot and your wine-tasting experience will be that much more enjoyable.

When you do visit the V Sattui winery, do so on a weekday if possible, just to avoid a massive amount of traffic. The less people, the more attention the wine folks behind the bar can give you. If you can’t do weekdays, try going the first hour they open up (mid-day at a winery is usually the busiest). Remember to make an appointment ahead of time if you would like to do a tour and also be sure to leave enough time to check out the beautiful grounds. If you have more time, you can also check out the Sattui family’s other winery that was just completed called Castello di Amorosa This is truly an amazing property and another Sattui gem! Either way, enjoy your wine tasting experience at V. Sattui winery! Cheers!

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