Castello di AmorosaAugust 10, 2008

My parents, husband, and I got an early-morning, private tour of Castello di Amorosa, a castle built by Darryl Sattui in Calistoga. It is such a beautiful place! I took tons of pictures, but I'm having issues with Snapfish and the pics on my computer, so I found the image above on another site. That looks like it was still in the construction stages, because it's better landscaped now. While there we also did some wine tasting (of course!). Most memorable for me was their La Fantasia wine. I thought it was just a rose, but it was delightfully fizzy! I'd never had anything like it and realized why when I read their desciption of it: 2007 LA FANTASIA I thought that my husband bought a bottle, but alas... when we got home from this trip that was not one of the bottles added to our collection. It's sold out now, so no more until late-February 2009. :o( I hope the new vintage will be as good!

I've seen a lot of reviews saying that the castle doesn't focus enough on wines, the tour doesn't talk enough about wine, blah blah blah... I was more interested in the architecture and craftmanship and the incredible detail and care paid to old world techniques, so I actually wasn't even worried about the wine (too much). I get enough of that in every other place up there, so I was NOT mad at the lack of description of their winemaking process. I think it's worth a trip there just to see the building & grounds.

Special treat at the castle right now (or at least back in August): parts of the set of Adam Sandler's Disney movie Bedtime Stories that was partially filmed at the castle are still set up out front! I don't know if the plan is to just keep them there or what, but it was fun to see that stuff and know that Adam and the Disney crew were there. Now I want to see the movie (I think it opens Christmas Day) so I can say, 'I've totally been right there!" I know... I'm a dork. Thanks.