By: Taylor Bartolucci

Taylor Bartolucci — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 16:45:12 +0000

Hello Tillie,
Thank you for posting a blog about our winery, however there are a few things I would like to clarify after reading your “review.”
As a fourth generation family member and partner of Madonna Estate it is amazing to be able to work daily with my sister and father. It is true that my Great-Grandfather, Andrea, started the winery in 1922, however we were able to stay in business during Prohibition not through sacramental wines, but by selling our grapes in San Francisco out of rail way cars. In fact, that was one of my Grandpa’s earliest memories that he would tell me about, traveling to San Francisco and peddling the grapes for people to produce their own wine at home.
Because we are such a small, family-owned winery, most of our business stems from walk in customers and our loyal bus companies. There are times when the tasting room may become a little crowded, but we have always prided ourselves on the personal attention that our tasting room personnel provide to our customers. Also, our tours are open to the public, and we constantly welcome our walk-in guests to join in on any tour that is taking place. The tour consists of a 15-minute session in the vineyard, a 15-minute session in the cellar, and a 30-minute session in the tasting room ($7.00 for walk-in customers).
As for our wines that we pour in the tasting room, just as every other winery in the valley handles their merchandise, it is almost impossible to offer a tasting list with every wine we produce. Currently we produce 9 different varietals and we have selected the wines that we feel are most popular and most requested to create our tasting program with. However, we do realize that not everyone likes the same style of wine, so we encourage our visitors to ask to try different varietals in exchange for others on the tasting list. We do have our tasting room fully stocked with all 9 wines, so at any time you could request and varietal and be poured a sample.
And finally, I wanted to clear up something with the wine. I notice you detected “vegetal entry blossoms” in our Pinot Noir, and I was surprised to read that. This is typically not a common description for a Carneros Pinot Noir. Of course everyone has different sense detectors, but I would encourage you to try our Pinot again. As for the Cabernet, you must have also confused our Reserve with our Carneros Cabernet. In our Reserve Cabernet we use grapes that we have purchased from the Rutherford region, however in our regular Cabernet we use our Estate grown Madonna Cabernet grapes.
I hope this information clears up any confusion. I wish you nothing but the best and encourage you to stop by and visit us again.

Comments on: Madonna Estate – 174

By: Taylor Bartolucci