unicorns, not included

To me, every castle needs a unicorn.  This one however does not. This castle has chickens, sheep and wine.  OK, maybe I have just reformed my idea of what needs to be included in a castle.  I think the latter ingredients are much better.

Castello di Amorosa is located in Calistoga on St. Helena highway. It is a huge castle with sweeping views of Napa Valley.  Castello is owned by Mr. Sattui.  Which if you drove the entire St. Helena highway from the south to the north to the castle, you would have passed V. Sattui, another delightful and energetic winery. But that winery is for another day. We're talking castles today.

The Italian influence on the Californian grown grapes makes a very interesting and delicious blend for the wines. Send all of these bottles to my cellar, please!

Shoot... I don't have a cellar and our bottle wine frig is maxed out at the moment.

We've never had a complaint about any of the people that we've had that have been pouring the wines for us.  They are all so friendly and knowledgeable and they pose the wines for perfect photos.

Gifts galore surround the tasting room.  It's a very interesting medley of things found while you are wine tasting.  You may also befriend a dog, and if we were present, you could befriend our dog as this winery is dog friendly and Bark Bark LOVES it! She will lick the cobblestone floor 'til the cows come home.  This winery also has a wine dog named Lupo.  Lupo is a German Shepherd and his name is Italian for wolf. So clever.  Sadly, we've never met Lupo on any of our visits yet.  It might just become my mission however as Barkley has a fondness towards the Shepherd.  You see, I learned this from their website, which you should check out too.  It's full of lots of fun facts and BEAUTIFUL pictures.  I also learned about their sustainable farming techniques.  Barkley may have a fondness towards big dogs; my fondness goes straight to the sustainable agriculture techniques.  God bless a good natural predator or cover crops. 

 Even creepy legless monks can be yours. Just kidding, you don't want the monk... check out that crown!

Fancy wine stoppers.  It's hard to pass up a good wine stopper.

For more information, check out their website here.