1055 Atlas Peak Road
Napa CA
(707) 256-3332
deldottovineyards.com
Types of Wines: Red wines and port
Charge for Tasting: Bar tastings $10 to $20
Winery Tours: You'll miss much of the fun at Del Dotto if you only stop at the bar. Instead, we recommend the $40 tour and barrel tasting, by appointment only
Wine Price: Very Expensive. Their wines are sold only at the winery.
Del Dotto Vineyards is a unique, small, family-owned vineyard producing only a few thousand cases of wine per year. Their Wine Gallery, just outside of the town of Napa, offers a barrel-tasting tour and a wine room tasting, as well as a wine shop featuring the owner's favorite wines.
Review
Located in the historic Hedgeside Distillery Building just outside the town of Napa, Del Dotto Vineyards offers one of wine country's most unique tasting tours. After sampling a bit of wine in their tasting room and stopping to inhale the unexpected aroma of an empty barrel, you'll take your wine glass along as the tour guide grabs a wine "thief" (a device used to take samples from a barrel of wine) and leads you into their candle-lit caves, hand dug in 1885.You won't see the crushing machine, the fermentation tanks or the bottling area on this tour. Del Dotto's winemakers think the barrel is important, and the tour here will center on that. You'll sample the same fermented grape juice aged in different types of oak, discovering flavor differences contributed by the wood, and taste different base wines (same grape, different year) aged in the same kind of wood, revealing the grapes' contribution.
The one-hour-plus tour ends with the ultimate wine pairing: Del Dotto's wine and chocolate truffles made at Napa's Vintage Sweet Shoppe. You'll also get a chance to sample several of their port wines.
If you like anything you taste along the way, you can order that wine bottled just for you.
A word of warning: You'll sample many wines on this tour, and each pouring is generous. It's easy to get intoxicated. To keep yourself safe on the drive home, pick a designated driver, hire someone to take you here, or take a tiny sip of each one and (sob!) throw out the rest.
Wine Quality: Wine Spectator magazine gave Del Dotto's 1999 Cabernet 93 points, and their Cabernet Franc garnered a score of 92 from Robert Parker, the highest he's ever given for that wine type.
Tourist Experience: Excellent. Del Dotto's barrel tasting is unique, and you will learn more on it than you can imagine.
Getting to Del Dotto Vineyard
In the town of Napa:- Drive north on Highway 29 to Trancas Street (at the stoplight).
- Turn right onto Trancas Street.
- Drive past Silverado Trail, where Trancas becomes Monticello Road.
- Drive to Atlas Peak Road (at the stoplight) and turn left.
- Del Dotto is on the left side of the street, about 1/4 mile down the road.
As is common in the travel industry, the writer was provided with a complimentary tour for the purpose of reviewing it. While it has not influenced this review, About.com believes in full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest. For more information, see our ethics policy.
