Castello di Amorosa hosts private lunches and dinners, team-building programs, large group tours and tastings, and private castle dinners for up to 300 guests. Groups of 15 or more count as large groups and are handled by the Hospitality and Event Team. The winery stands at 4045 St. Helena Highway, three miles south of Calistoga, in the north of California's Napa Valley.
Seminars and company events
The castle sells private wine education events for corporate retreats and private celebrations. The listed formats are large group tastings and tours, team-building experiences, private lunches and private castle dinners. Each event is built with the team around a tasting, a food pairing and the set-up of the chosen space.
Three set group programs give a starting point. The first is a guided tour followed by a tasting at one of the castle's tasting bars, lasting about two hours. The second adds sparkling wine on arrival and a seated tasting of six premium and reserve wines with cheese, charcuterie and chocolate, for about two and a half hours. The third, inspired by the Italian pranzo, follows the tour with a rustic buffet of antipasto dishes in a semi-private space and needs at least 20 guests. Any of the three can serve as the social part of an offsite in the valley.
Weddings and receptions
The castle does not host weddings, vow renewals, elopements or wedding receptions. Its winery operating permit, under a Napa County regulation, rules them out, and the winery makes no exceptions. It can still host a tour and tasting for a wedding party in one of its event spaces.
Rooms and capacities
The castle covers 121,000 square feet, with 107 rooms over four underground and four above-ground levels. Its spaces include courtyards, loggias, a chapel, stables, an armory and vaulted cellars. The winery does not publish the names or capacities of its individual event spaces; the largest figure it gives is 300 guests for lunch and dinner events. An elevator links the courtyard to the underground tasting room and to the covered loggia above, and the site is ADA compliant. The guided tour includes about an hour of walking, partly underground.
Accommodation
There are no bedrooms at the castle. Its owner, Dario Sattui, also runs the Castello Victorian, a restored 1886 house three blocks from downtown Calistoga with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. Calistoga and the rest of the valley offer many inns and resorts for larger groups.
Catering
Food is part of the castle's own event offer: lunches, dinners, pairings and buffets are arranged by the Hospitality and Event Team. Outside food is not allowed under Napa County rules, and wine can only be served as tastings, not by the glass or by the bottle.
History and setting
Dario Sattui, a fourth-generation winemaker, bought the 171-acre property in 1993 and began building in 1994. Construction took fifteen years and used more than 8,000 tons of hand-chiseled local stone and close to one million antique bricks brought from Europe. The castle opened to the public on April 7, 2007, with a moat, a drawbridge, five towers and defensive ramparts in the style of a 14th-century Tuscan castle. The cellars stay at about 58 degrees all year, so guests should bring a jacket.
Getting there
The castle is on Highway 29, three miles south of Calistoga and five miles north of St. Helena, behind a large brick gate. Entry is by reservation only, and gate staff check confirmations on arrival. The winery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
