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We're a corporate retreat for team-building!

On April 30, 2013, The New York Times wrote about the trend where wineries are hosting retreats for corporate team building. Here’s an excerpt:

IT seems counterintuitive for companies to take their employees somewhere where the alcohol begins to flow even before lunch is served. But wineries around the world are increasingly accommodating businesses asking for meeting space, catering and even wine-making lessons for their workers. In the Napa Valley, the vineyards producing the region’s famous cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay have long welcomed tourists and about 10 percent of them are traveling on business, according to the Napa Valley Conference and Visitors Bureau, so it is no wonder that many of the valley’s wineries encourage corporate gatherings.….Castello di Amorosa, a castle and wine estate inspired by 13th-century Tuscany, where Mary Pham, digital marketing manager for Toyota, recently held an event for auto dealers. Other businesses that come for work-related meetings might want to advise their employees to dress down, because team-building activities here could mean stomping grapes.

Read the full article here

 

The Castello Team

Dario Sattui donates $1 million to Boys and Girls Club of Calistoga

Dario Sattui, owner of V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena and Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga, has pledged $1 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Helena and Calistoga for its future construction of a permanent Club facility in Calistoga.

Listen to Dario's interview on KGO 810:

https://soundcloud.com/thecastello/dario-sattui-donates-one

“I am really proud to make this small contribution to the future of our community, and believe this will make a positive impact. Let’s hope the Club can raise the rest of the money quickly and open the new Club, “said Sattui.

Dario Sattui with the Board of Directors and Staff of the Boys and Girls Club of St. Helena and Calistoga

“This is a landmark moment for our organization,” commented Club Executive Director Jay Templeton. “Mr. Sattui’s magnificent lead gift provides us the framework to begin focused discussions of our Calistoga project. The Boys & Girls Clubs and Mr. Sattui share the same values of respect for the environment, and the importance of agriculture, nutrition, exercise, academics, entrepreneurship, technology skills and guidance in preparing today’s youth to be productive 21st century citizens.” 

Currently the Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Helena and Calistoga operates an after-school program located at the Calistoga Elementary School on Berry Street. In 2012, registered youth membership at that site was 395 with an average daily attendance of 129. The Club also operates a Teen Center located in the city’s Monhoff Center on Grant Street adjacent to the Calistoga Junior-Senior High School.

“For some time, the Board of Directors has discussed a Calistoga project,” said Templeton. “Our St. Helena facility was opened in January of 2008 following a successful capital campaign. The next vision has been to establish a permanent facility in Calistoga through community fundraising.”

On April 26th, the Board of Directors will hold a Board retreat specifically to discuss the Club’s Calistoga future, including discussions on a potential location, cost, size, fundraising and timing. “We hope to come out of that day with basic direction and to set the course for a new Boys & Girls Club building in Calistoga,” remarked Templeton.

Sattui will attend the Club’s Board of Directors meeting at noon on March 20th to present two $500,000 checks. Each of his local businesses, V. Sattui Winery and Castello di Amorosa are contributing jointly. 

The Sattui donation is the second lead gift received for the future Calistoga project. In November of 2012, the DeLong-Sweet Family Foundation made the first contribution, a $250,000 pledge arranged by Calistoga residents Paul and Pamela Ingalls. The Boys & Girls Club hopes these early donations are an indication of the support it will have and need in order to complete the Calistoga capital campaign and the construction project.

The children of the Boys and Girls Club of St. Helena and Calistoga with Dario Sattui and staff.

Noted Board of Directors President, Kathleen Herdell, “We are thrilled by the generosity of Dario, Paul and Pamela. Their contributions will touch the lives of Up-Valley children for generations to come. ‘Thank you’ just doesn’t adequately capture the gratitude we feel for these visionaries and role models. They are helping to give the kids a safe and positive place to be after school and all summer long. Having watched the excited faces of kids as they enter the St. Helena Clubhouse, I can’t wait to give the Calistoga children that same experience.”

A Chill In The Air

This is the time of year when winemakers and vineyard managers start paying close attention to weather patterns.  Although long periods of extreme cold and sub-freezing temperatures can always cause distress in a vineyard; frost is particularly damaging in the early spring.  Once bud break occurs, spring frosts can kill the young shoots potentially destroying a crop.  If you visit wine country in early spring you may spot a few different methods utilized by vintners in attempts to combat frost damage.  Most preventative measures are expensive and vary in effectiveness, but, the financial loss of frost damage is extreme. 

The least utilized and possibly least effective is burning oil in a smudge pot.  The smoke and heat generated is hopefully carried over the vineyard by the wind forming a warmer protective blanket.  As the heavier cold air sinks, the warm blanket of air protects the shoots.

A solution that seems just as drastic but that has actually proven viable in some vineyard locales; spraying the vines with a fine mist of water.  As the water freezes it forms a protective layer of ice insulating the young shoots by trapping the heat, (think of an igloo or an ice cave).  Since Napa Valley’s Mediterranean climate doesn’t generally dip below 25 degrees Fahrenheit, this method shows promise as it is environmentally less invasive and more economically viable. A negative for using water is fairly obvious but worth noting: you are using water, which can be scarce or completely unavailable in remote vineyards.

The most common and visually the most obvious method in use can be viewed off Highway 29 and along the Silverado Trail.  What looks like windmills are actually wind machines, which move air over vineyards to keep the coldest air from settling on vulnerable, young shoots.  The heavier cold air mixes with the warmer air, being moved by the wind machine, creating a slight elevation in temperature which is often just enough to ward off frost as long as that temperature is above 28 degrees Fahrenheit.  However, I live close to one such wind machine and I see it as only partially effective.  While it prevents frost from developing in areas directly in the path of said turbulence, my personal observation is the outlying areas are often blanketed with frost.  Another fact to consider…..wind machines are essentially propellers that run on fuel so they can be expensive to run and the noise level can be extreme – especially in the wee hours of the morning when they are typically used. *yawn*

Does a foolproof solution exist?  Well, if you have an opportunity when driving in the valley, look to the hills.  It is rare to find any method of frost control on sloped vineyard sites.  Dense cold air naturally drains off the hillsides and settles onto the valley floor quite often rendering the hillsides unaffected by frost.

In this north end of the Napa Valley we are fortunate.  With the Mayacamas Mountains to the West and the Vaca Mountains to the East, some of the most prestigious viticultural land in the world has been created.  Castello di Amorosa’s Il Barone and La Castellana wines are crafted from Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards on Diamond Mountain, part of the famed Mayacamas range; above the fog line, drenched in sunshine and relatively unharmed by frost.
As we continue to progress in viticulture methodology one fact holds true – Mother Nature will always have the final word.
And with that my final word – Cheers!
Mary Davidek C.S., C.S.W.

Winter in the Napa Valley

The view from the north tower at Castello di Amorosa looking at snow on the Vaca Range. This is the Napa Valley- an officially recognized American Viticultural Area or AVA. The actual Napa Valley floor is 5 miles wide and 30 miles long. The Napa Valley currently contains 15 recognized sub or "nested" AVA's.

Castello di Amorosa's 30 acre vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese and Primitivo is in the Diamond Mountain District AVA. Covering 5,000 acres in the Mayacamas Mountains on the northeast side of the Napa Valley, this region has over 500 acres under vine. The cool fog that influences the valley floor is not a factor here due to our up-valley location and higher elevation vineyard. Lack of topsoil, porous volcanic soil and extended exposure to the sun are reasons why world-class wines, Cabernet Sauvignon in particular, are described as bold and powerful with chewy textures and firm tannins.