Dario Sattui has a history worth retelling. As a young man, he had heard numerous stories of how his great grandfather came to America from his homeland of Italy and grew his bakery into a very successful wine shop beginning in 1886 by simply duplicating the process his family used to make wine for their personal consumption. By 1920 he had one of most successful wineries in San Francisco but prohibition was passed and he had barrels of wine in his possession. Convinced it would not last long, he mixed all the wines together and added brandy to help preserve the quality of the wine, then he walled up the barrels in the basement of his business location. Prohibition lasted 13 years and he was afraid to take the barrels out because he was afraid he would be arrested for hiding the wine.
History of V. Sattui – bottom left is the warehouse where the barrels were stored behind false walls.
The building was sold several times without ever disclosing the false wall and the hidden contents. Dario made a phone call to the then owner asking if he had found any memorabilia from his great grandfather’s business only to be told the owner was doing some remodeling and discovered the barrels which created an expensive issue for him. He offered to sell the barrels to Dario at a very modest price providing he be responsible for any cost of removal. Remember, these barrels are heavy. Dario agreed and took possession of the barrels. Once in his possession, he tasted the wine only to find his great grandfather, Vittorio had created one of the best madeira wines in the country and began selling it at his fledgling winery in Napa Valley. V. Sattui became an instant success story enabling Dario to buy the property for his second winery, Castello di Amorosa which we visited yesterday.
Today we got information related to vines and grapes themselves. Did you know that if you squeeze white grapes, you get white grape juice and if you squeeze red grapes, you still get white grape juice? You have to let the red grapes and skins ferment together to get the red grape juice. Did you know that grape vines and roses are susceptible to the same diseases and insects so many of the wineries plant rose bushes at the ends of each row to help them inspect qui
In addition to the winery, there is deli on premises and took advantage to create a gourmet lunch of freshly baked bread, parmesan garlic dipping sauce, tomato-olive salad and Italian salami. Doesn’t it look good?
We stopped into two other wineries to see what they looked like because all those perfectly straight rows of vines with borders of Italian Cypress trees and roses are beautiful. 
Entrance to Robert Mondavi Winery
Then we headed to a special place; the Jelly Belly Factory.
What an operation they have here in Fairfield, California! This is one of three locations that supply the jelly beans for the entire world. The second location is in Illinois and they have a third location in Thailand for all the overseas shipments. There are over 100 different flavors and each is made with nature flavors, like peach puree in the peach flavored Jelly Belly. We were able to sample any flavors we wanted and, of course, we were able to buy whatever we wanted. $$$$
Tomorrow we go to visit the Avenue of the Giants Ancient Redwoods.
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