Winery loses $5 million worth of wine; castle unscathed.
Vintner Sattui envisioned the architectural wonder as a tribute to his ancestors
It pays not to put all your eggs in one basket.
Or to give a Wine Country spin to the truism, all your barbera in one building.
Though 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 Tuscanstyle castle itself that noted vintner Dario Sattui had built over 15 years emerged unscathed — and the $5 million worth of lost wine was only a fraction of the inventory.
Georg Salzner, president of Castello di Amorosa, said he believes the flames of the Glass fire came up a canyon on the side of the Calistoga winery early Monday morning and set ablaze the roof tiles of the farmhouse, an accessory building that sits behind the main castle building and wine tasting rooms.
The farmhouse, which was severely damaged in the fire, held offices for management, a fermentation room and a fulfillment center where about 1/10th of the winery’s wine bottles were stored.
Coincidentally, Salzner said, in the Middle Ages, kingdoms stored goods that were flammable in a farmhouse separated from the main castle. Hoping to re- create Castello as authentically as possible, Sattui did the same here — just without the expectation that “one day it would really pay off,” Salzner said.
“There was no damage to the castle per se,” said Castello marketing Vice President Jim Sullivan.
They estimate that about 120,000 bottles of wine were lost in the fire — or about $5 million in wine, including some collector items, special releases and some of the first vintages made by the winery nearly two decades ago.
Luckily, Sullivan said, “We have a lot of wine stored offsite. And in the castle.”
Castello di Amorosa started receiving visitors in 2007. But Sattui’s dream was years in the making.
“I did it partly to honor
my ancestors,” Sattui, a fourth- generation winemaker, told Mercury News reporter Michael Martinez soon after the opening. “And partly, I don’t know. I just really have a passion for this.”
Sattui’s great- grandfather, Vittorio, started V. Sattui in 1885 but was shut down by Prohibition laws in the 1920s. Dario, 10 years out of San Jose State University, rebuilt it in 1975 in St. Helena. The Castello di Amorosa architectural plan and line of wines were conceived later.
Originally designed to cover 8,500 square feet, the castle grew as Sattui’s love of architecture and all things Italian overwhelmed his intent, Martinez wrote.
The resulting edifice measures 121,000 square feet,
with 107 rooms on eight levels, four of them underground. Some 8,000 tons of stones — including basalt and sandstone — were chiseled by hand and set individually. Leaded glass was imported from Italy. Gargoyles were hand- carved. A maze of narrow hallways below the ground measures 900 feet and leads to several chambers filled with wine barrels and artifacts.
On Tuesday morning, employees were back at the castle on the hill — less than 24 hours after the farmhouse was burned — crushing grapes.
“It’s unfortunate,” Salzner said. “But we cannot just stop, so we will be crushing grapes and we will immediately be starting on renovations.”