Promontory Winery — Attraction in Yountville

I visited Promontory Winery with high expectations. The tour began with a glass of Dom Perignon, followed by a sample of their flagship red wine poured from an impressively large barrel. The guide explained that we were tasting their youngest vintage, which was indeed harsh on the tongue—very coarse and tannic. However, we could easily envision it developing into a fine wine over time. I remained hopeful that the next phase of the tasting would involve older, more refined wines that would showcase their full potential.

The guide tried to add a fun twist to the experience by presenting us with three unlabeled carafes for a blind tasting. Initially, I found the idea amusing and interesting, until our disorganized guide realized she had forgotten which wine was in which glass, making the experience confusing and unpleasant for everyone. Despite this mistake, we all agreed that the three wines we tried were harsh, undeveloped, and extremely tannic. Naturally, we suspected that none of the wines had been decanted. When we asked the guide, she admitted they hadn't been decanted. Her defense was that unless customers request decanting before their visit, the wine is served immediately after opening the bottle.

These wines are designed to be aged for about 30 years, so it's no surprise that tasting such a wine without proper decanting results in a very unpleasant experience. None of us could appreciate the true quality of the wine because the tannins were too aggressive.

When visiting a winery, one expects to taste the wine in its best condition to decide whether to purchase it or not. However, this was the most disappointing wine tasting I've ever experienced, especially given the $300 per person price tag.

If you want to have a good experience at this winery, be sure to request decanting before your visit. Otherwise, you won’t be able to truly enjoy the taste of these wines. Ironically, the Dom Perignon was the highlight...

I've visited a few times. Each time it's been an amazing experience and the hosts have all been very knowledgeable (most are WSET level 3+) and friendly. Hands down top 5% wine-tasting experience you can have in Napa, maybe even the world! It's very classy, your host meets you at the car/entrance, and in most cases, you see no other person or employee even during the entire 90-minute experience!

Your group starts with a glass of Dom, overlooking the winery grounds (the actual vines grapes for Promontory are on the other side of the mountain iirc). A couple of tastings from the barrels themselves. The you taste a few vintages of Promontory and Penultimate in a seated tasting then. The glassware is all Zalto (even for water!). They serve it with some amazing parmesan from Italy and breadsticks. The focus is on the wine!

Kids are welcome, but it's more of an adult experience. Well-behaved/older kids will do just fine, they even have some lemonade/drinks for them.

You can buy bottles or join the founders list then to lock down an allocation.

It's not cheap to visit or buy their wines, but if one can afford it, it's well...

OMG! What an amazing experience our wine tasting and tour was! The experience was so personal and exclusive. You get to the gate and have to announce yourself before they open the gate to let you in where you are greeted by your guide. In our case it was Ashley. She was so wonderful and animated. We related with her experience with Promontory. After quickly parking the car, she greeted us and took us inside yo the beautifully kept grounds where she offered us Champaign. This place is so beautiful and overlooks Harlan Estate which is unfortunately not open to the public. She gave us a lot of history on Promontory and the map of where all the grapes come from and the distillation process. Got to try an unfinished vintage straight out of the barrel to see how it differs from finished wine. Also got to try penultimate which is their second label. Also got to try an older vintage of promontory, 2012 which was soooo good! I was only allowed to buy one unfortunately. Amazing experience! Highly recommend the experience...