Castello di Amorosa — Attraction in Calistoga

Thank you for ruining our wedding anniversary. Today, my wife and I were celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary. As a young couple with two kids, we don’t go out much, so we decided to take a day off and visit your location. We drove for 3 and a half hours. Upon arrival, we were able to purchase tickets — I paid exactly $159.95 for two tickets.

We were completely disrespected. At the entrance, we were first told that our children would not be allowed inside the castle (which I thought was strange, but okay). Since it was a very special day, I didn’t argue in order to avoid ruining it for my wife. As she was with some friends, I told her: “It’s fine, you go enjoy it, and I’ll stay in the car with the kids.”

I asked where the bathroom was, and was told it was inside the castle, so I took my kids to use it and then headed back to the car. On my way back, a staff member called out to me and said I could participate in the wine tasting, but I just couldn’t go to the underground area with the kids. I totally understood and respected that.

I went back into the castle — and if you check your security cameras, you’ll see I stood in the exact same spot in front of the bathroom for two hours. One of your guides, who was escorting people through the castle, completely ignored me and my wife. I tried to show him our tickets (which I had in my hand), and he just turned his back and walked away.

Check your cameras near where your staff was preparing for the members’ event — you’ll clearly see me standing there for two full hours with my children asking for help while everyone ignored us.

When my wife returned from her tour, I thought: “At least I’ll enjoy the wine tasting since I still have my ticket.” I went in with my friends, who had already done the tasting, hoping to sit with them. But the woman there told me I couldn’t sit with them since only I would be doing the tasting. I understood — because apparently, setting up a table for six people for ten minutes would have been too much of a sacrifice for your staff, even though I was clearly frustrated that you had ruined my day.

I asked for a refund, and she simply told me to go to the underground. So I did. When I got there, the girl told me that $60 was just for entry into the castle and that I could have done the tour but chose not to — seriously??? You know what I did? I just said “okay,” and left.

It’s not about the money — thank God that’s not my problem. It’s about the fact that you ruined one of the most important days of my life with your ignorance and disrespect. I managed a restaurant for 4 years and always recommended your place to my customers because I’d read about the castle’s history — as a lover of stories, I spent nights admiring photos and videos of the place. But now, with a heavy heart — and as the owner of two restaurants — I can honestly say: I will tell EVERYONE NOT to visit your establishment, because you will not respect them and will judge them by their appearance.

Once again, thank you for ruining our anniversary and destroying my plans to propose to my wife again on this...

This review is long overdue. During the first days of the year, we visited Castello for a wine and cheese tasting tour. The tour itself was enjoyable, and the castle is absolutely beautiful. However, there were a few disappointing aspects that I only realized afterward.

First, regarding my wine order experience. Since we had another tasting scheduled that same day, we didn’t place an order on-site. I later contacted our tour guide and placed the order over the phone 2–3 weeks later. The sales representative who helped me was very kind and knowledgeable, offering great storage tips and advice.

Unfortunately, things went downhill when it came to shipping. I did receive a tracking number, but honestly, who checks that every single day? Especially when spending over $5k on wine, a simple courtesy reminder about the delivery date would have gone a long way. I have dozens of packages delivered weekly, so I wasn’t actively monitoring it. Of course, this delivery required a signature, and no one was home at the time, so the package wasn’t dropped off.

When I reached out to the sales rep, I was surprised to hear they don’t have any system in place to notify customers before delivery. Really? For high-value orders like that? Especially when commission is involved? He reassured me that the wine was stored in a temperature-controlled facility and would be fine until redelivery the next day.

However, after following up directly with FedEx, I learned the truth. The wine had been sitting in a hot van all day, and the overnight storage wasn’t temperature-controlled either — this is Florida, after all. I was so disappointed, not just by the poor handling of the wine, but by the false reassurances I was given. For me, one lie is enough to lose trust.

As a result, I canceled the entire order (which took multiple calls to finalize) and also canceled my futures order. It became clear this place is more about business than preserving the original idea of great wine and good company.

To add to the experience, our tour guide was a few minutes late, the tastings felt rushed, and the overall atmosphere was loud and chaotic. It felt like money was the priority, not the experience — and eventually, that shows.

In the end, I bought my wine elsewhere, from a place with better quality and service. I honestly feel bad for whoever ends up with the returned boxes from my order because I have no doubt they’ll just resell them to...

FALSELY ACCUSED OF STEALING!!!

My party and I (13 people) had a very disappointing and embarrassing experience at this winery. When we arrived, the staff outside by the check-in area told us we couldn't tour the castle unless we had a reservation. We COMPLETELY UNDERSTOOD that, but then they said if we bought three bottles per car (which for us was six bottles total), they would let us go in and see the inside of the castle. Based on that information, we purchased six bottles, which we were told to go pick up at the pick up counter. Later, we found out that we were misinformed and buying those bottles only allowed us to view the castle from the outside, not actually tour it. We accepted that without arguing and simply said, "Okay, that's fine, just give us a refund instead."

At that point, we had not received our bottles. After the refund process, a staff member (which I was told is a supervisor named Virginia; whom they call Vicky) accused us of taking the bottles after receiving the refund. She didn't ask--she stated it as a fact! This was witnessed by many members of our party including other people who were around.

We heard her accuse us by saying, "You took the bottles after you got the refund." We told her multiple times to please check the cameras, because we did not appreciate being accused like that. Instead of admitting the mistake, she responded, "Well, there's a big party. There's a lot of you, so one of you must've taken them back to the car." That was completely untrue!

A family member from our party even showed her the refund receipt with the order number, and right then she saw that the bottles with that exact order number were still sitting on the counter with other employees. Even after being proven wrong, she never apologized. When we went back to speak to her, she tried to backtrack and claimed she had only asked us a question. Had she simply admitted the mistake and apologized, everything would have been fine--we would have understood. But what made it worse was the continued denial and insistence that she hadn't accused us, when clearly she had, in front of many others.

This entire situation was humiliating and extremely unprofessional. This is a beautiful winery but we were not treated with respect and honesty...