Castello di Amorosa is a winery located near

Calistoga, California Calistoga (Wappo language, Wappo: ''Nilektsonoma'') is a city in Napa County, California, United States. Located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the city had a population of 5,228 as of ...

. The winery opened to the public in April 2007, as the project of a fourth-generation

vintner A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes: *Cooperating with viticulturists *Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to de ...

, Dario Sattui, who also owns and operates the V. Sattui Winery named after his great-grandfather, Vittorio Sattui, who originally established a winery in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in 1885 after emigrating from

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The winery property was once part of an estate owned by Edward Turner Bale. In 1993, Sattui purchased for $3.2 million, then spent another $40 million to construct the castle, outbuildings, and the winery inside the castle; construction work began in 1995. During the Glass Fire that began on September 27, 2020, the farmhouse suffered major damage, the entire 2020 vintage of the wine Fantasia was lost, but the castle was left unharmed.

Inspiration

After graduating with an MBA from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1969, Dario Sattui spent two years traveling in Europe, during which time he developed an interest in medieval architecture. He took photos and made sketches of various buildings he would visit including medieval castles, monasteries, palaces, farmhouses and wineries.

Castle

The castle interiors, which include 107 rooms on 8 levels above and below ground, were approximately when opened in 2007; it has since been expanded to . Key details and building techniques are architecturally faithful to the 12th and 13th century time period. Among many other features, it includes a moat; a drawbridge, defensive towers, an interior courtyard, a torture chamber, a chapel/church, a knights' chamber, and a

great hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages. It continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great cha ...

with a -high

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, al ...

ed ceiling. The

torture chamber A torture chamber is a room equipped, and sometimes specially constructed, for the infliction of torture.

has an

iron maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

said to be from the late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, which Sattui states he bought for $13,000 in

Pienza Pienza () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Siena, Tuscany, in the historical region of Val d'Orcia. Situated between the towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino, it is considered the "touchstone of Renaissance urbanism". In 1996, UNESCO d ...

; a replica

rack Rack or racks may refer to: Storage, support and transportation * Amp rack, a piece of furniture in which amplifiers are mounted * Autorack or auto carrier, for transporting vehicles in freight trains * Baker's rack, for bread and other bake ...

; and other torture devices. The great hall features

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es painted by two Italian artists, who took about a year and a half to complete, and showcases a 500-year-old fireplace. The masonry, ironwork, and woodwork were fashioned by hand using

old world The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

crafting techniques. Building materials included 8,000 tons of locally quarried stone, paving stones, terra cotta roofing tiles, and 850,000 bricks imported from Europe. Extending into the hillside adjacent to the castle is a labyrinth of caves some in length. Beneath the castle are a barrel cellar and tasting rooms where visitors can sample the wines, all sold only at the Castle or through the winery's

wine club A wine club is a developing extension of modern wine culture. Wine clubs are designed to provide customers with a series of wine bottles on a monthly or quarterly basis that they would otherwise have to find and purchase on their own. Wine clubs o ...

. Due to

Napa County Napa County () is a County (United States), county north of San Pablo Bay located in the Northern California, northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 138,019. The county seat i ...

restrictions, the castle and grounds cannot be rented for weddings or receptions, but are available to rent for corporate gatherings and fund raisers. In May 2012 the county ordered the winery to cease holding a weekly

Catholic Mass The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass "the same Christ ...

in the

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

located on the grounds due to lack of use permits. File:Castello di Amorosa.jpg, The castle as seen from the driveway File:Castello-di-Amorosa-drawbridge-2015.jpg, The drawbridge entrance File:Castello di Amorosa Winery, Napa Valley, California, USA (6129045178).jpg, Courtyard File:Castello-di-Amorosa-greathall.jpg, The great hall File:Castello-di-Amorosa-knightshall.jpg, Knights' chambers File:Castello-di-Amorosa-cellar.jpg, The wine cellar File:Castello-di-Amorosa-moat-2015.jpg, Exterior walls File:Castello-di-Amorosa-torture-chamber.jpg, Torture chamber

References

External links

* {{Authority control Castles in California Wineries in Napa Valley