V. Sattui Winery: Napa Valley Treasure

St. Helena, CA -- Dario Sattui is the great-grandson of Vittorio who single-handedly took up the torch in 1975 and revived V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena along Highway 29. His rag to riches story is one of youthful drive and unwavering dedication to a vision. For six or seven years, he worked long hours, seven days a week. To save money he slept in a sleeping bag on the tasting room floor, taking cold showers from the winery hose, rolling up the bag in the daytime, hiding it behind the wine barrels and telling no one about his dire straits. His goal was to craft fine wines to make his great-grandfather Vittorio proud. The result of Dario’s effort is a winery that’s able to sell 70,000 cases per year of wine direct to the consumer, a successful, against-the-grain business model that eliminates distribution through stores or restaurants


I was introduced to Dario who at six foot four is a commanding presence. He is in his 70s—tall, rugged, handsome and still virile. We were at V. Sattui’s annual Crush Party, an event that allowed the public to step behind the scenes of a working winery to watch grapes being crushed; meet the winemakers; measure acid, sugar, pH and sulfurs; see the bottle line in operation; dip Madeira bottles in hot sealing wax; and of course eat and drink to our heart’s delight.

“This is Ingrid, she’s writing a book on California,” said Claudette Shatto, the public relations woman for the winery. I brought along my 19-year-old son Jordan, who attends nearby U.C. Davis, world-renown for its viticulture school that has produced some of the best vintners in the Napa Valley.

“You don’t look old enough to have a son this age,” he said with a twinkle in his eye—a charmer. “I have a little place up the road called Castilo di Amaraso, if you want to tour it, let me know.” He reached into his wallet and pulled out an odd-sized business card and handed it to me. “Have a great time at the Crush party.”

Later I would learn that Dario’s “little place up the road” was a recreation of a medieval castle with 200 acres of prime real estate in St. Helena that Dario completed in 2007 after fourteen years of laborious construction.