V. Sattui Winery
1111 White Lane (off Highway 29)
St. Helena, California 94574
(707) 963-7774
www.vsattui.com
After visiting the Robert Mondavi winery, we headed a few miles down to St. Helena to visit V. Sattui. This winery is highly recommended by our friends in the West Coast area, and is a great place to bring your family to. The grounds are beautifully landscaped, with a lot of rose vines and bushes.
The winery has an on-site deli and cheese/cured meats shop. On weekends, they also have hot grilled ribs, sandwiches and pizzas for sale. [There's also a Dean and Delucca across the highway, although you're not supposed to bring outside food.] The grounds are open for picnickers, so bring your blanket!
Superfatty's super friends and family enjoying the awesome grounds. I was unable to take picutres of the food---we were all so hungry! The outdoor grilled food was pretty good; we had the pizza margherita, roast beef sandwich, grilled chicken and bbq ribs. Moms picked up some very chewy bread and a salad from the store. We all loved the food. 
View from the parking lot. Like a lot of the big wineries in the area, it was packed with tourists and daytrippers last Thanksgiving weekend.
V. Sattui's tasting room was much bigger and more well-equipped to handle the hordes of people; I counted at least six tasting stations, in addition to a reserve station in a separate area. The staff were also very friendly and helpful, with none of that snooty oneophile attitude.
I picked the "premier" wines, which allows you to sample six out of nine wines. One of us tried the "regular" sampler,which allows you the same number of tastings for their lesser wines.
Brother D (left) and Brother F (right) liked the lighter wines in the list. The wines were, on the whole, very pleasant and quaffable. The atmosphere was very convivial and relaxed, and we had a great time. We all settled on the Madeira, which reminded me of a light port. Tasted like raisins and spice.
BBQ time! The lines, though long, move fast.
We had a very lovely time here. I think that the crowds and the tourists are just inevitable in Napa. V. Sattui smartly decided not to fight it, and instead decided that everybody---novices and wine lovers alike--- should enjoy their winery experience.
Update: DJKung and I cracked open the Madeira. I am pleased to say that it tasted how I had remembered it. I recall that I really liked this because it reminded me of a very good (potent) Portugese port that we brought home from Spain... Pops finished the bottle before I even barely had a taste. The V. Sattui maderia was a lighter version of this.
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