Chateau Montelena Winery

My favorite spot, winery, wine in California wine country thus far. I loved our tour and tasting experience. The wine was amazingly smooth and I loved the estate. Cannot wait to return and rave about it to everyone now.

Lots of options at this winery. Knowledgeable, friendly staff. It’s a great place to taste and then BUY!

Great customer service by Dylan! Very personable and professional. Will definitely request him each time. Worth keeping the membership!

Absolutely amazing! Their wine is world famous for good reason. But the staff there at the tasting room was informative, over the top friendly and fun. I went with my wife mom step dad and step grandma (who doesn’t speak English). The staff amazing! We went just for a taste and we left with 12 bottles of wine. Fantastic!!! Will come back as often as I can. Plus the taste is only 25 dollars with is amazing since its world class wine.

The wines are awesome. The people are fun and the atmosphere is close knot if you love wine! Give it a shot!!! And taste the estate cab!

Love getting bottles of Riesling and Chardonnay here without having to drive up to Calistoga. Pair the riesling with some spicy foods and voila! Buy your bottles and have dinner at Michael Mina’s restaurant ($ 25 corkage fee) or nearby restaurants i.e., Morton’s, Cheesecake Factory ($ 10 corkage fee), Burger Bar, Scala’s Bistro, etc. A variety of restaurants to choose from in the heart of Union Square and delicious sushi places, perfect with Chardonnay if you choose not to have Sake. Of course, the Château is nice to visit, I’m extremely happy there’s a tasting room in this timeless classic SF Hotel «The Westin St. Francis». So much to see and do before or after the tasting, and convenient for us folks who don’t feel like making the trek up through Napa Valley or wait on a shipment to arrive.

Ok last year we bought a slew of wine from this tasting room and had it delivered. We also bought wine skins. This year I call him to see if he has wine skins. Their hours are weird and I already bought wine. He is all shady asking me if I’m staying at the hotel, what’s my name. Then he says «sorry just ran out». Doesn’t even sound remotely honest and not friendly.

I had never tried Château Montelena’s wines prior to my walk through the Westin St. Francis Hotel this past weekend, but Bottle Shock is one of the best movies ever. If you are not a wine aficionado, then rent Beerfest or something more to your liking. If you’ve seen Bottle Shock then you know that Château Montelena is featured throughout the storyline of the film. While we were killing time prior to a show in the city, we stopped in at their small tasting room off the hotel lobby to see what all the fuss was over the wines of the Château. The wines are great. They are expensive, but they are Napa Valley wines. You won’t find a Napa wine for less than $ 30 these days. The 09 Cab was probably our favorite hands down. Since it runs $ 50 a bottle, we stuck to just a taste as we can drink Placer and El Dorado County wines that are just as good and a little less expensive when we go home.

Apparently, Westin St. Regis in San Francisco is the only hotel that has wine tasting; that is what we were told by the gal who greeted us at Château Montelena wine tasting. This is a very small space, can probably only fit 4 adults comfortably to taste. $ 20 to taste 4 amazing wines. Definately would recommend others to stop by even if you aren’t staying at the hotel.

Wanted to go, waited 3 days because not open early in the week. Hours before my plane left, I head down because I love the wine (and the movie). 3:30 pm, they opened at 1:30, I walk in ready to drink and the guy says «sorry I have and important meeting to go to». Yeah me too that I wasn’t important enough. So no wine, I went down the street. Putz!

bo brings his vino to the St. Francis

Best wine ever. All of them. I’m a red wine drinker but I love their whites too and I won’t even touch any other white.

Don’t have time to make it up to Napa but still want to taste the berry juice from one of the greatest wineries in the history of American viticulture. Boom! Walk into the St. Francis and taste greatness.

Secret place in a lobby of Westin St Francis — has tasting and sells wines too!

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The Château Montelena Tasting room is located inside the Westin St. Francis Hotel in Union Square, the heart of San Francisco. I would walk right by it and wouldn’t even noticed till I came back from the washroom, what a nice surprise. It took over the the jewelry shop spot.
Right behind the Bourbon Steakhouse, on the left side. A representative from the Château is there pouring wine four days a week, from WED-​SAT, 1 PM-​8 PM. For only $ 15, I got to taste 4 wines:
— 2010 Riesling — nice and crisp.
— 2009 Chardonay — soft, fresh with bright citrus tones. This can hold for another few years.
— 2008 Zinfandel — bright ruby-​red with good clarity, rich aromatic, earthy and berry, surprisingly smooth.
— 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon — Deep indensity, dark ruby, good nose, earthy, rich and full body. I love this cab! Their 2006 cab was rated 92 points outstanding, 2007 can be better if hold for another 4 – 7 years out!
Beside the wines, they offer books, and other wine related products. Since the tasting room is quite small, standing is the only option here. Ryan the sales rep explained every pour thoroughly and great hospitality to all guests. I picked up the Judgment of Paris, California vs. France and The Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine by George M. Taber book, was personally signed by the author. I was more than thrilled! It’s a good read so far, I can’t wait to finish it on my trip to Hawaii!
You can sign up to be on their mailing list of wine clubs here as welI. I was so happy that it will be here for good, not 1 of those pop-​up tasting room for the holidays only!
Château Montelena is 1 of the most prestige wines in the Napa Valley and well respected producer in the world. I was like a kid in a candy store. Just found another fab spot for my shopping breaks! Is it wine o’clock yet?