Villa Montefiori

This was my second visit to the winery in Valle de Guadalupe, which specializes in Italian varietals. The elevated tasting room has beautiful views. The wines spend 12-18 months in new French oak, then a couple years aging in the bottle before release. I especially enjoyed the montepulciano and the Nebbiolo/montepulciano blend. They’re expensive and could benefit from more aging, though they’re very drinkable now. We were a large group and didn’t know much about wine, so a few more explanations would have helped. The staff were friendly, however.

The villa is lovely and really affordable, and the wine itself is spectacular. Paolo is so knowledgeable and easy to talk to. You can tell making wine is his passion, and he’s the best enologist in town. It’s a family-run winery, and I’d absolutely recommend it, especially to anyone trying this for the first time.

A lovely spot to pause and unwind. The views are among the best in the valley, and both the wine and cheese plate were fantastic.

The wine was fine, but the tasting was a terrible value. Between the two of us, we got less than a full glass, even though it cost nearly $60 USD. The pours were so tiny that it felt embarrassing for the price. The server said her boss set the pour size. She was wonderful, though, and even offered food suggestions. When she could tell we weren’t impressed, she kindly brought us a sample of another wine too. We could have spent $35 on a bottle of one of the wines we tried and gotten around five glasses. If you go, I’d skip the tasting and order a bottle if you want better value.