TLDR: A northeastern fire near St. Helena exploded yesterday late afternoon and evening, spreading from Northern St. Helena across Spring Mountain to Santa Rosa. That eastern corridor between St. Helena and Calistoga is very crispy. Many of these wineries reported they were ok as of yesterday afternoon, and they no longer are doing that well. https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article246061010.html Many of the wineries up above St. Helena, like Viader, were very well defended yesterday afternoon, but a lot has happened since then. There will be severe damage reports this morning from Spring Mountain. There will also be damage in western St. Helena. EDIT: Crowdsourcing from local winemakers, the following properties below have some damage. Please do not interpret this to mean the entire property burned down. This list contains some that only have vineyard damage. I am doing my best to edit as I get more information. EDIT 2: Who knows what will happen tonight... will update in the morning. EDIT 3: Not a lot of new info this morning yet... I know a lot of folks are worried about Calistoga, Kenwood, and Spring Mountain, but we should be grateful that folks listened to the evacuation orders. Info will come in time. EDIT 4: Added what Spring Mountain info I have EDIT 5: Today sucks. More red flag warnings thru Friday, more evac warnings in St. Helena/Rutherford, fire active around Diamond Mtn Rd, many of us are helping evac wine out of St. Helena wineries. Doing my best to keep this accurate. Really appreciate the comments/links people are posting as new info comes up. EDIT 6: Nov 1 12pm. There are a lot of rumors floating around. I am waiting to hear more evidence before updating this list. Howell Mountain Behrens Family Estate - Primary winery building destroyed Meadowood - Destroyed :( https://twitter.com/adamhousley/status/1310681066684870657 Hourglass - major damage to winery https://twitter.com/ChaseDiFelice/status/1310711643718909952 Sterling - outbuilding damage https://twitter.com/sfchronicle/status/1310644252200771589 Cain - winery destroyed Tofanelli Vineyard - major vineyard damage. Amazing Semillon over there. I hope it's OK. Sherwin - winery destroyed Newton - major damage(https://twitter.com/SkibaScubaShop/status/1310617430268375040?s=20) Fairwinds is burned up inside, confirmed by video https://twitter.com/sfchronicle/status/1310669184049659904 Hunnicutt - major damage but winery OK Chateau Boswell (main building damaged, confirmed) https://twitter.com/amyhollyfield/status/1310590680498991104) Burgess - Destroyed Stony Hill - Tasting room burned, Winery is OK. Calistoga Ranch - Gone - https://twitter.com/SenBillDodd/status/1310663677343752192?s=20 Rombauer - Lots of fire on the property but main buildings still intact Viader - buildings are OK, some damage to vineyards per owners Bremer Family Winery - Winery OK, home lost Seven Stones - lost a guest house. Don't know about vines Davis - vines damaged, main building OK Arkenstone - Fire reached property but they're OK! https://twitter.com/CphilpottCraig/status/1311071713417781248?s=20 California Ranch Spring Mountain - Major vineyard damage. Main winery building and mansion intact. Marston Failla (FAILLA IS OK!! Vineyard damage but tasting room is still standing!) Paloma - some damage but many buildings intact. Yay! https://www.instagram.com/p/CFuwasInFw2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Schramsberg - some damage on property but main building and cave are OK! https://twitter.com/Schramsberg/status/1311002253138915328?s=20 Castello di Amorosa (farm house burned, a lot of fire around the property, main castle still standing) https://twitter.com/CornellBarnard/status/1310706972581269504?s=20 Melka Estates - Mostly intact, a little structural damage. https://www.instagram.com/p/CFsZZ7DH-te/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Brasswood - buildings OK Venge - buildings OK https://www.instagram.com/p/CFvJyiqDPVf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Boeschen - Main winery is OK. This is amazing. https://www.instagram.com/p/CFvYB39H_As/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Tuck Beckstoffer - huge property damage but winery is OK. Mending Wall - Winery OK, some vines burned Kelly Fleming - Winery OK Eisele - sounds like they are OK Napa Valley Reserve - OK Vineyard 7&8 - OK Titus - OK Keenan - winery OK, some vineyard damage Kenefick Ranch - OK https://www.instagram.com/p/CFvWB-un3D7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Harvest was VERY EARLY this year and the majority of fruit that tested clean has already been harvested. This devastation is not about more smoke taint. Of course the 2020 vintage does not sound enticing, and that merits serious discussion, but please have some sympathy today. Wineries, vineyards, and homes are gone. This fb page has great videos of what last night was like : https://www.facebook.com/onfirephotos
Being a wine lover, Napa Valley was obviously on my bucket list. When a business trip to San Francisco popped up, I knew that I needed to extend my trip to make a visit to the wine capital of the USA. I was making the trip solo, so I started looking into guided group tours leaving from San Francisco. There’s a wide variety of tours that cater to every audience, and it can actually be quite intimidating picking out a tour. I started out by searching for tours that were the most economical. There are some big bus tours that will take you to 3-4 wineries and include all of the tasting fees. The wineries that they take you’ll visit aren’t the world renowned wineries, and actually offer free tastings to all of their visitors. I decided to take a smaller mini van tour because the wineries looked more interesting to me. It visited Castello di Amorosa (a winery with a Tuscan style castle), V. Sattui (one of the best wineries in Napa), and the famous Robert Mondavi Winery. The tour cost about $140 CAD and didn’t include any of the tasting fees, but included a picnic lunch at the second winery. The tour started bright and early at 8am when I was picked up outside of Macy’s at Union Square. The tour does offer hotel pickup if you book far enough in advance. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and stopped at the welcome centre to take a few pictures. From there, we made the one hour drive to Napa. Our tour guide had a microphone and gave us some history on the area and pointed out some notable sites. All of the wineries we visited were in the Napa region, but we also drove through Sonoma. We learned about how the recent wildfires have devastated Napa and almost wiped out some of the wineries. He even pointed out some of the worst wineries in Napa Valley, which were the ones visited by the big bus tours (I guess I made a good decision!). We had some extra time and drove through Yountville, the biggest town in the Napa area. We started our wine tasting at around 10:30am (is it ever too early for wine?) at Castello di Amorosa. The winery has a Tuscan style castle on site, with everything in it imported from Europe. Admission to the castle + the wine tasting came up to about $40 CAD. Our entire group (all 7 of us) headed down to the wine cellar to start out tasting. The sommelier was fantastic and actually let us try 10 of their most popular wines (our tasting only included 4 wines!). He brought out some breadsticks so we could cleanse our palettes between wines. After our tasting, we wandered around the extravagant rooms of the castle. We all met back at the mini van at the appointed time and headed to V. Sattui for lunch. We each got a coupon to spend $15 in the deli for lunch. After we finished our lunch, we checked out the tasting room where we were able to pick out any 5 wines to try. The tasting came up to about $45 CAD, but it was definitely worth it! The sommelier was so passionate and poured me a few extra glasses when he figured out what types of wines I enjoyed. Lastly, we visited Robert Mondavi Winery, which is one of the most famous wineries in Napa. Their wine is readily available at liquor stories in Canada so I was quite familiar with their wine. This winery was probably my least favourite because it seemed less personal than the other wineries. Their tasting room operated more like a restaurant. There were 3 preset wine flights, which means that you didn’t have much say into what wines you wanted to try. I ordered the flight of white wine which cost about $35 CAD. The wines were served on a paper place mat which gave me some insight into each of the wines. After our visit to the third winery, we made the hour and a half drive back to San Francisco. After all of that wine, there were a few people that fell asleep on the ride back. I’d definitely recommend this tour to anyone who wants to visit some quality vineyards in Napa. There was definitely more of a focus on wine tastings as opposed to wine production; if that’s what you’re looking for, I might recommend a different tour. What are your favourite wineries in Napa Valley? Let me know in the comments below! https://www.buckethalffull.com/195-take-a-wine-tour-of-napa-valley/
I'd like to talk about how the wine industry tries very hard to promote a very romanticised, old-fashioned image of wine, despite having very modernised, industrial setups. From the stone manors and footprints on wine bottles, to the stately manors that house wine-tastings, many major wine companies like to pretend winemaking is some kind of lost art, performed by artisans in dank basements, instead of the modernized production facilities they actually use. To me, the epitome of this behavior is Castello di Amorosa. Castello di Amorosa, literally "Castle of Love", is an 'authentic' 13th century castle that opened in 2007, in the middle of Napa Valley. It goes to great lengths to make itself seem like a real castle, and by extension, to make its wine seem like some ancient thing, constructed with timeless methods. Imagine my surprise when on a visit there a couple years back, looking out from on top of its stone castle walls, the sight of gigantic aluminum holding tanks out back. The "Castillo": https://imgur.com/7tTeAza What it looked like in the back: https://imgur.com/falTh7I Certainly a far cry from the medieval image they are playing at! Some more comparisons of romanticised vs reality: https://imgur.com/a/5UafbWR As you can see in this gallery, the discrepancy between how wine companies want the public to think their wine, and by extension wine in general, is made differs heavily from how it actually is made. Gallo seemed especially egregious to me, pushing itself as a "family-oriented" venture while having a massive production facility like that. That's not to say that these modern methods are strictly inferior, though. Take, for example, the mechanical harvester. (Video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv-AnyvWL7g) While its actions certainly look brutal and imprecise, modern harvesters provide, in the opinion of many winemakers, it provides a comparable product to grapes harvested by hand. But even though it might not be a negative thing, it is certainly not something the wineries would show off, and that's the issue I take with the companies that do this. It's not about using the modern over the traditional, it's about pushing a traditional image despite using modern methods, and by doing that forcing other winemakers to push the image as well for fear of being seen as 'inauthentic'. So don't let these rustic images influence when you buy wine. Unless you know for sure that the company in question has resolved to use these traditional methods, it's very likely that the traditional, romanticised image they are putting out is highly unreflective of their actual process.
Byzantine - A term describing any system that has so many labyrinthine internal interconnections that it would be impossible to simplify by separation into loosely coupled or linked components. (3 points, 1 comment)
Wildbow is one of the most prolific web novelists. He’s published at least two chapters a week since 2011 and has yet to miss a day. This is his first and most successful book: Worm. (15 points, 0 comments)
20 points: jostler57's comment in Eminem Proves There Are Plenty Of Words That Rhyme With 'Orange'
17 points: Our-Year's comment in Every “Under construction” gif from the 90s internet
16 points: weber_md's comment in "Bushisms" are unconventional statements, phrases, pronunciations, malapropisms, and semantic or linguistic errors in the public speaking of the 43rd President of the United States George W. Bush.
15 points: mynameisntniki's comment in Operation "Larry", aka the 6+ ft tall octopus tentacle in my living room
15 points: redcolumbine's comment in In Southern Iran some women wear boregheh
14 points: Ismoketomuch's comment in Eminem Proves There Are Plenty Of Words That Rhyme With 'Orange'
I just want to thank everyone for posting winery recommendations in this sub, I used it a TON to narrow down which ones to go to. There are hundreds if not thousands of wineries in these counties and it can be quite overwhelming planning where to go. My girlfriend (24) and I (30) just finished our 2nd trip to Napa/Sonoma, actually typing this on the plane back to Austin, and wanted to share with everyone our trip details with hopes that it can help others in the future. We wanted to see as much of the wine country as we efficiently and comfortably could in 2 days. Full disclosure - I was much more concerned with experience at the winery vs high quality wine, although everything we had was exceptional. Pardon my extremely novice wine descriptions. Here we go: FRIDAY - landed in SFO at 8 AM Sonoma County Fog crest (Russian River) - decided to skip the city of Sonoma and drive straight to Russian river valley, very happy we did. Smaller winery with an AMAZING patio that overlooks the vineyards. Great pinots and Chardonnay. Reservations not required but we did call ahead. One of our favorite visits Russian River brewery (Santa Rosa) - not a winery, but a huge destination. Being an IPA lover, was beyond excited to visit and try Pliny. Food was delicious as was the Pliny, but overall was a bit let down - didn't live up to my expectations. Pliny did not blow me away, but might just be spoiled coming from the Austin brew scene. Short wait (15 min) to get seated around 2 PM Ferrari-Carano (Dry Creek) - absolutely stunning grounds and a great buttery Chardonnay. Rest of the wines were ok, but would definitely go back for the scenery. Also part of Visa Signature buy one get one tasting. No reservation needed Siduri (Healdsburg) - really cool and casual tasting room. Got the Pinot flight and my girlfriend fell in love with the Green Valley from Perry Ranch, really regret not buying a bottle. Amazing wines and great service, highly recommend. Open until 7 SATURDAY Making our way towards Napa Golden Haven mud baths (Calistoga) - couples mud bath, cool experience. Got a buy one get on deal for $100, but Probably not worth $100/person at full price Castello di Amorosa (Calistoga) - the castle, big tourist destination, but for good reason. Really cool experience although quite crowded. Pleasantly surprised with how much we liked the wine and had an extremely knowledgeable pourer. No reservation needed and quite cheap for Napa - Napa is significantly more expense than Sonoma! Cakebread (Rutherford) - girlfriend was dying to go, reservations a must. Cool tasting tour with great Chardonnay and Cab. Cheap tasting for Napa. Got to keep the wine glass which is a great souvenir Hess collection (Mount Veeder) - amazing grounds high up in the mountains on the west portion on Napa. Tasting room was spectacular, even has its own modern art museum. Cheap tastings, loved the Lion Tamer. Highly recommend dinner at Ad Hoc in Yountsville! Flew out of Sacramento Sunday morning. Overall, had a great experience in both Sonoma and Napa. Liked Sonoma a little better - So many different regions to explore, less crowds, equal/or better scenery than Napa, less expensive, same quality of wine in my novice opinion. Hope this helps some people out in the future!
Hi, I'm going to Napa on an upcoming Sat-Monday and I was hoping to get some suggestions on places to go. Food, coffee, tours, scenic photo spots, nature spots, or just places to see or do. :) Will be staying at White House Napa Valley Inn. And so far, I have planned Sterling tram, train tour (not sure which one to do yet). Also hoping to do a cave tour (Bringer or Del Dotto) and see Castello di Amorosa. But I have no idea what else to do/see or eat. Hoping to fit as much in as I can during that weekend. Thanks! Edit: Here is my jumbled up half planned things to hopefully do list that I haven't finalized: (It's really messy and unorganized) Places to eat: Oxbow Market - some sandwich place, pica pica, fatted calf zuzu’s tapas addendum bouchon bakery Peju winery? Redd The Restaurant at Meadowood Bistro Jeanty Goose & Gander Zuzu The Thomas Solbar Gotts, Rutherford Grill, Ad-Hoc French laundry (one day in the future lol) Winery and places to touvisit for scenery: Sterling tram Train tour Castello di Amorosa - castle Bringer or Del Dotto cave tour Artesa winery Mondavi winey (? not sure why but recommended?) Auberge du Soleil Rutherford Hill Winery Nature: Silverado trail Lake berryessa Old Faithful Geyser Coffee: Napa coffee roasters coffee ritual roasters EDIT 2:: Do you guys have any MUST SEE scenic places, restaurants, or wineries that you recommend? Thanks!! :)
My wife's 30th birthday was this past Monday. We were in Santa Cruz for a wedding so it was a short trip up to Napa for about 36 hours. Here's how it played out! Beau Wine Tours drove us around to the first 4, the latter 2 we drove to the next day. 1) Frog's Leap - $25 - 4 wine flight plus 2 bonus Tasted their current releases, most great, loved the Zin, of which we'll order a case when our home renovation is done around turkey day. 2) Castello di Amorosa (The Castle) - $45 - 5 wine flight plus 1 bonus Awesome tour of a beautiful castle which was started in '93 and finished in 2008. Did a tasting with chocolate pairing, didn't do the reserve, sorry folks. Barbera and Cab were the wins for me, probably should have scooped a bottle of the Barbera for $35, though I have had better wines at that price point. $55 was simply too high for the cab. My whole tasting was reds, sadly disappointed with the rest. We also got a taste of a 2015 barrel that has one more year on it, so that was a cool experience. 3) Silver Oak - $25 - 3 wine flight plus 1 revisit Damn this place was gorgeous. I knew going in the cab would be phenomenal. My wife and I had a bottle gifted to us during dinner at Ruth's Chris in Boston after she finished the Boston Marathon in 2014 (she was stopped and redirected in 2013). They were pouring '11 Napa, '07 Alexander, and '06 Napa. I preferred them in reverse order and my wife was a fan of the '07, so we picked up an '11 to age in addition to her '07. Really excited about both of these. Spent about $200 on the pair. 4) Alpha Omega - $30 - 4 wine flight, no revisit (had to leave) Great place with a wonderful patio and beachy feel. For the first time, I actually disliked a wine and poured it out. Not sure if I was tuckered out for the day or if I was coming off too big a high, but the reds were too tannic. Everything was current releases, maybe a little overpressed or just needed to age out a bit. Red-only flight here was $50 and I didn't think it was worth the premium. 5) Stag's Leap Wine Cellars - $40 - 4 wine flight plus many bonuses After a morning hike at Bothe State Park to see Napa's only coastal redwoods, we showed up around noon and decided to split a flight before our 2pm at Darioush. I really got blown away here. Josaiah was a young guy from Alabama, very energetic but also super passionate about his reds. He made a couple jokes about how quiet we were but I felt it was all in good fun so no feelings hurt. We tasted some fantastic wines, starting with Artemis, the only one we had tried before (note: I didn't know the difference from Stag's to Stags' and Josaiah cleared that up nicely as we have a half case of '12 Stags' Petite Sirah at home right now). We followed up with a '13 FAY, SLV, '05 FAY, and Cask 23 Cab. The '05 was the first bonus, he was real excited to tell us all about it and pour himself a taste to nose and sip on. That was cool, I really felt the hospitality. As we're deciding what to do, he starts talking about more favorites and breaks out a 2012 FAY Golden Rectangle. It was fantastic, easily one of my new best-I've-ever-had reds. We're going back and forth about what we like, what differences we are seeing in the wines, all in all just great conversation. He tells us about the estate and what is grown there, and how the parking lot actually used to have vines and that a final vintage was made from them, the '12 FAY Farewell to Vines. My excitement got the better of me, and not having spent a lot or committed to any clubs yet, I signed up for Club 23 (2-3 bottles at $325 value 4x annually) and specified my first order as 1 bottle of Golden Rectangle and 2 Farewell to Vines (1 to give as a gift). $357 out the door with tasting on the house and overnight shipping (arrived today). So. Pumped. 6) Darioush - $75 - 5 wine flight plus 2 extra of first glass while walking vineyard What an absolutely extraordinary property. Learned all about Darioush's history, education in Iran wine before prohibition, lots of great tidbits about Persian construction. Drinking Viognier outside was the best white wine experience I've ever had and easily the best wine. We will be ordering a case next year. After finishing the tour, our tasting consisted of 4 cheeses paired to 4 wines, 1 white and 3 reds. I believe the white was Chardonnay and I will say the cheese definitely improved its impression on my palate. After that, a Cab/Shiraz blend that I found to be pretty good. Next up, Shiraz, one of my wife's favorites. I don't like Syrah and since these are the same grape, I wasn't surprised that I didn't like this one. More powerful to me than a cab, but again with the cheese, much more palatable. Lastly, the Cab, a pretty damn good wine, but at $95 I found it to be harsher than both the Silver Oak and Stag's Leap Cabs. Since Darioush had been a recommendation from a friend, we bought him the Cab/Shiraz blend and picked up the Shiraz for my fantastic wife, who put up with me booking everything last minute without ripping my head off. Total damage was about $129 for the pair. TLDR; Went to Napa for 36 hours hit 6 wineries, bought 7 bottles for just under $700, joined Club 23 at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, and can't wait to go back. Bottles bought: '11 Silver Oak Napa Cab '07 Silver Oak Alexander Cab '12 Stag's Leap FAY Golden Rectangle '12 Stag's Leap FAY Farewell to Vines (2) '13 Darioush Cab/Shiraz blend '13 Darioush Shiraz
Opened to the public in January, Castello di Amorosa, just south of Calistoga in the Napa Valley, is a perfect replica of a European castle, from the hand-chiseled stone, to the 60-foot defense tower, to a torture chamber supplied with genuine torture devices. Fortunately, you arenít likely to criticize the wines. It was a labor love for winemaker Dario Sattui, building and expanding his unique medieval castle inspired winery Castello di Amorosa. But in a matter of hours, flames from the Glass Fire had ... Castello di Amorosa 908 followers on LinkedIn. An authentically-styled medieval Tuscan castle and winery in Napa Valley offering a variety of hand-crafted wines Castello di Amorosa is an ... CALISTOGA, Calif. (KRON) — Castello di Amorosa, a winery in Napa Valley with a famously unique castle structure, is closed until further notice after the Glass Fire burned through its path on ... Castello di Amorosa, remembered by many as the "castle" visible from Highway 128 in Calistoga, told The Chronicle their farmhouse was razed by the Glass Fire. That farmhouse held all of their... Castello di Amorosa – A Castle in the Napa Valley Nestled in the sun drenched hills and vineyards of the Napa Valley sits a most peculiar site: an authentic 13th century Tuscan Castle! Its name is the Castello di Amorosa, Italian for Castle of Love, and everything about it was built to be as authentic as any in Europe. While the property losses sustained in the Glass Fire by the Napa Valley’s castle on a hill, the Castello di Amorosa winery, were significant, the Tuscan-style castle itself that noted vintner... Sattui is the owner of Castello di Amorosa Winery in Calistoga. He says his worst nightmare came true early Monday when part of his beloved winery caught fire and was still burning hours later. His... Castello di Amorosa, California Castello di Amorosa, California is an authentically styled 13th century Tuscan castle winery in the Napa Valley. Tours, wine tasting, and food and wine pairing experiences are offered daily. Visit Castello di Amorosa, a medieval-style Tuscan castle winery located in Calistoga, Napa Valley. Explore our wines and book a wine tasting tour today!