Castello di Amorosa, Calistoga CA

It so happen I saw this place to a friend website. I went to NAPA valley several times I never hear that there is a castle in one of the vineyards. To my surprise, hubby took me to see the place. We went there Sunday October 26 past 1pm. The magnificent castle in the middle of the vineyard was spectacular. I may have seen the castle from Disney this castle is different.

We went inside and greeted by a concierge. In order to get to the castle, you must at least pay $15 dollars for wine tasting. It is not too bad than having a tour for an hour that will cost $30 each. So hubby and I paid our ticket for wine tasting and went to the wine tasting area. The area is at the ground so we passed brick of walls going down. It was so nice and cozy. There were a lot of sommelier scattered around the tables from center to outside of the wall. We had a welcome wine of Pinot Grigorio. It is not included of the 5 wines for tasting. We started with 2007 Chardonnay. It was good. Followed by 2007 Gioia (Joy-Uh) Rosato di Sangiovese and 2004 Merlot.

Our glass was changed then to savor the dessert wine. We had a start of the 2006 Gewurtztraminer, "Dolcino", which was my delight of taste and the 2007 IL Raggio Del Sole - Muscat that lifted my palate so very well. I asked hubby to buy those 2 wines. We had a bonus to taste the best sweetest dessert from the Reserve wines 2006 Late Harvest. If it was not so expensive I could have buy it too. But I already have the other two and the latter was sweeter so I sticked to what I had planned. I was really happy of the wine tasting. It's one of the best I had.

As per story of the sommelier, the castle was built for over 15 years. Majority of the bricks were handly made from Italy and other parts of the world. It is so cool to hear that story of how long it will take to build the castle. It was opened 2003 which was just not too long ago. I am so happy to have this privilege to see it.