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St. Helena’s historic V. Sattui Winery recently eliminated fees 3 days a week
V. Sattui Winery, a Napa Valley institution with famed picnic grounds, has a history that dates back to 1885, when Italian immigrant Vittorio Sattui arrived in San Francisco and started making wine. But for me, the St. Helena winery’s heyday was actually the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Back then, I was new to the Bay Area, in my 20s and scraping by on a reporter’s salary. On weekends, however, my underpaid posse and I felt like ballers: We’d pile into someone’s clunky sedan, head up Highway 29, and plant ourselves on V. Sattui’s vast lawn, drinking amazing wine for free. V. Sattui didn’t start charging for tastings until 2006 — and even then, they were only $5.
When we got hungry, Michelin-starred restaurants were the furthest things from our minds. We headed up the road to Taylor’s Refresher (now the thriving Gott’s Roadside chain) and gorged ourselves on cheap burgers. Sober and full of sunshine, we’d make our way back down Highway 80 and to reality, in awe of living so close to such a world-class winemaking region.
Things are different now. Tasting fees have hit triple digits, visitation is down, and Americans, including me, are drinking less. Still, I’ve been nostalgic for my wine-soaked glory days. So I recently made the pilgrimage to V. Sattui — this time with my husband, in our SUV — to see how the iconic stone winery is faring in this very different age of wine tourism.
We arrived on a Saturday in late spring, and what I found shocked me. Not only was V. Sattui packed to the gills, but, as part of a major renovation, it also now featured a massive marketplace and tasting room unlike anything I’ve ever seen in the valley. Open since July 2025, Mercato del Gusto is not just a tasting room and deli; it’s a destination.
The centerpiece of its 8,000 square feet is a dramatic, 20-foot circular bar all the way in the back. But the front is pretty jaw-dropping, too: A refrigerated wall on the right stretches 27 feet long and 5 feet high and is filled with nearly 300 types of cheeses from around the world. On the left, glass cases are filled with pastas, salads and house-made desserts, including fruit tarts and tiramisu. A chef from northern Italy with a Michelin-starred restaurant back home spends his offseasons here, crafting charcuterie and small plates. Sky-high ceilings open up the space even further, featuring wrought-iron chandeliers and some made from reclaimed wine bottles that draw the eyes upward.
V. Sattui has had a reputation as a mainstream winery ever since Vittorio’s great-grandson brought the winery to Napa Valley in 1975; the following year, he opened its original tasting room and deli. The iconic stone winery and tower didn’t open until 1985. With its location right on Highway 29 at White Lane, its picnic grounds and the fact that it produces more than 60 different wines, V. Sattui tends to draw tourists and everyday drinkers more than wine snobs. On my visit, I found that the winery is leaning into this more than ever, and with success.
For starters, a tasting of five V. Sattui wines, including some estate-grown offerings, is $49. It’s far below the region’s 2025 average of $79, which some Napa Valley wineries are now slashing to combat the tourism slump. For kids or nondrinkers, they have winegrape juice flights. And on some weekdays, V. Sattui has gone back to basics — offering free tastings of three wines, with a wine educator, for an hour.
That one surprised me enough to reach out to V. Sattui President Tom Davies. Turns out, the winery started offering free tastings on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the second half of 2025 as a way to showcase the new digs and celebrate its 50th anniversary. The freebie was so well received that V. Sattui added it on Wednesdays, too.
“Often when businesses renovate, they raise their prices, and I wanted to do the opposite,” Davies told me. “I wanted to open our doors even wider and really be as gracious as possible.”
The staff was apprehensive. They worried nobody would end up buying anything. But the number of customers nearly doubled on those days, Davies said, which is the most important thing to him.
“We are giving up some income on tasting fees,” he said. “But guess what we’re getting? If people don’t taste our wine, they don’t have a connection to the winery. Most end up buying a bottle to enjoy there and another to take home.”
He’s hoping other wineries who have the staff and resources will try it too.
“We’ve got to get back to the valley being more accessible,” Davies said. “The whole reservation thing came out of the pandemic, and it worked for that time, but often, people want to jump in the car and be spontaneous. The valley has kind of lost that. You want to have a fun day. Why not make it easier?”
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I couldn’t agree more. Our spontaneous Saturday was wonderful. We nibbled on Belgian goat gouda and tasted executive chef Stefano Masanti’s award-winning bresaola, or beef prosciutto. The focaccia club sandwich was enough to feed two, and though we didn’t try them, there were plenty of desserts made by the in-house pastry chef and chocolatier. The olive-centric potato salad is a must.
A small-plate wine pairing dish at V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena.
A small-plate wine pairing dish at V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena.
Jessica Yadegaran/SFGATE
There was so much to on offer, from grab-and-go salads to the weekend barbecue food truck and wood-fired pizzas, you could linger all day — or use the excuse of having visiting friends in town to go back.
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We learned a few things, as well: Yes, V. Sattui still makes a ton of wines (up to 27 varietals), but the majority of them are crafted in small lots (under 1,000 or even 500 cases). Bestsellers are still the Sattui Family red, the off-dry riesling (great with spicy food) and the sauvignon blanc, but I was surprised to see they make a natural wine, a zippy white field blend of five varietals including albariño and chenin blanc, and a just-released semillon skin-contact orange wine (just 100 cases produced). Seventy percent of the wines are estate-grown, and V. Sattui recently converted all 200 acres of estate vineyards across four counties to 100% organic farming — all things wine snobs can get behind.
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Mercato del Gusto, the tasting room and marketplace at V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena.
Mercato del Gusto, the tasting room and marketplace at V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena.
Jessica Yadegaran/SFGATE
V. Sattui’s visitation might be down by a third, as Davies told me, but I have a feeling the mercato, the free tastings and that glorious lawn will continue to inspire nostalgia in Bay Area residents like me. And keep us coming back, too.
V. Sattui Winery, 1111 White Lane, St. Helena. Open daily, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Reservations recommended on weekends.
