But on a recent visit, I noticed something that the wine snobs seem to have missed: This castle is actually awesome. 

And that’s coming from someone who hates theme parks. Waiting in lines and spending money are two of my least favorite activities, which effectively rules out going to amusement parks or brunch. I can’t remember the last time I came within queuing distance of a roller coaster. 

However, my initial distaste for a medieval-theme winery began to fade as soon as I turned off Highway 128 and saw the castle walls crest over a hillside covered in grapevines. It’s located a couple miles south of Calistoga in some of the most picturesque vistas in California wine country. The castle does not stick out like the eyesore locals scornfully predicted; in fact, it feels like the towers have been protecting the valley for centuries.

This authenticity comes partly from how the structure was built using simple, handmade techniques. Dario Sattui, a Napa Valley winery owner, bought the land and broke ground on the structure in 1993. He originally had designed a simple monastery building, inspired by years of touring European castles. Sattui imported some materials but primarily used local artisans, who hand cut thousands of stones for the structure, which eventually expanded well beyond a simple monastery. 

When Sattui finally opened the doors to the public in 2007, 14 years after starting construction, his plans had expanded to a 136,000-square-foot castle with five towers and a great hall with 22-foot-tall ceilings, all surrounding a giant stone courtyard. Beneath the castle, there’s secret passageways and a 12,000-square-foot barrel room where you can taste wine straight from a barrel underneath vaulted brick ceilings. And, of course, the whole thing is surrounded by a moat. A 2013 Wall Street Journal article pegged the price tag at $40 million. 

The great hall (left) and passageway in Castello di Amorosa. (Lester Black / SFGATE)
The great hall (above) and passageway in Castello di Amorosa. (Lester Black / SFGATE)

Jim Sullivan, the vice president of marketing for the castle, told me that he hears people write off the castle as a theme park, but also frequently sees people have a change of heart when they actually visit.

“Yeah, when people call it Disneyland, it’s a big place and lots of people come here so you can say that, but people are always surprised when they taste the wine and experience the authenticity of the castle,” Sullivan said.

Consider myself one of the converted after spending an hour walking the grounds with Sullivan. Visiting the castle is by reservation only, requiring you to buy a wine tasting (starting at $60) to tour the estate. But if you pony up enough for a wine tasting, you can walk freely around the two main floors of the castle, including climbing the castle’s towers, which offer a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside. 

The views are stunning, but for me, the climax of the tour was underground, inside the castle’s grand barrel room, where guests can taste wine pulled directly from a barrel. Sullivan slid a glass tube into a barrel and pulled out a sample of some 2021 Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon. It was inky dark in color and felt young and powerful when I tasted it, full of blackberry, spice and a strong tannic vigor. It wasn’t the most balanced wine, but it felt appropriately rustic as I tasted it underneath vaulted stone ceilings. 

Down a winding set of stone hallways from the grand barrel room is the castle’s torture chamber, which was a low point of the tour for me. The room was adorned with swords and various torture devices that felt hokey and contrived, which is weird because medieval torture is more somber than jovial. It felt flat to me, although I’m sure a group of San Francisco Mission kinksters would love to throw a party in the inner workings of Castello di Amorosa. 

That actually brings me to my second complaint with the structure — its name. Castello di Amorosa translates to Castle of Love, which sounds like a sex store on a busy suburban highway, not a handmade stone castle someone likely spent $40 million building. 

The castle’s name and its torture room notwithstanding, Castello di Amorosa is fantastic. It’s a breath of fresh air inside a wine region that takes itself very, very seriously. While the castle isn’t cheap to visit, at least you don’t need to be a wine expert to be invited across its drawbridge, unlike other wineries that pride themselves on how much they can talk down to you.

The entire wine industry is struggling to attract younger people, and Napa Valley is having a particular problem bringing millennials to the area, thanks to its expensive wines and often snobbish atmosphere. Perhaps Castello di Amorosa can teach its haters a lesson: Building more castles might be one way to safeguard Napa Valley’s future.