Description
About Castoro Cellars Winery
Established in 1983, this winery produces a large array of different red and white wines. The owners actually took a backwards approach to making wine. First they started in the industry making and selling wine. Then they were able to purchase their own equipment, the winery and the tasting room. Once they had all of those things, they started buying land, and planting and farming vineyards. The vineyard was established in 1990. Castoro has over 1,400 acres of vineyards, which are both certified organic and also SIP Certified (Sustainable In Practice). They produce 30 - 40k cases a year now.
The grounds are truly stunning and beautiful and one of the nicest wineries we visited during our trip. While the place is very nice, it doesn’t have a pretentious or assuming atmosphere at all. The atmosphere has a casual, relaxed and friendly vibe. Another thing that makes this winery unique is that is has a frisbee golf course running through the vineyard. Such a cool and unique idea to allow people to immerse themselves in the vineyard while enjoying some outdoor recreation. There is also an art gallery there, but unfortunately that was closed by the time our tasting was done. I guess we will just have to visit next time we are in town so we can see the gallery!
Castoro Cellars Winery Review
The only bad thing bad we encountered during our visit was the hostess. She wasn’t very accommodating to us at all (we asked if we could play 9 holes of frisbee golf then do a tasting and she told us no, even though we emailed them ahead of time to schedule this). They weren’t busy at all, so we were confused as to why this was such a hard thing to do. She said it was due to being short staffed and who they had still scheduled to visit for the day, but there were more people working at the time then guests.
We decided to play disc golf because half of our group have never tried it before and the weather was perfect outside. It was a very fun course and we all had a lot of fun playing. You do have to drive from the tasting room to the disc golf course, but it’s very close by so no big deal at all.
Once we got done playing disc golf, we asked again if we could do a quick tasting as we brought our discs back, and she again said that wasn’t possible. Another server overheard us asking, and said he would happily fit us in. The server who fit us in (I forget his name) made up for everything and did a fantastic job. He even ended up staying a few minutes little late to help us take a few pictures of our group. His service we would rate a 5.
We are SO glad we were able to do a tasting. Our group ended up buying some merchandise from their gift shop (which was really nice), we bought a few bottles to take home, and we joined their wine club. Their wine club is a great value (you get 6 bottles shipped to you for $120, and that includes shipping). So for $20 a bottle, that is a fantastic value for some truly excellent wines.
The tasting room and estate area are truly beautiful. It’s shaded and somewhat protected from the wind. We all thought it felt like being on the patio of a mansion. The building itself is also very nice, but the patio area is what truly stands out. The garden surrounding the patio is also very pretty and they have some very unique grape vine succulent planters that we all thought were very cool and unique.
Service – 🍷🍷🍷
Atmosphere – 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷
The Wines – 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷
Prices – 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷
Overall – 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷
Insider Tip: Wear good walking shoes for the disc golf course. A few people in our group (we won’t mention any names) wore sandals, and it was not easy for them to get around.
Castoro Cellars Wines Offered
We tried several of their reds in our tasting. The server was very knowledgeable and friendly and actually stayed a little bit later than he should have to ensure we had a great time. We ended up buying a few bottles to take home with us and joining their wine club. So it was time well spent at least. 🙂
Their wines are pressed earlier than normal so the wine doesn’t have as strong of tannins as usual. This makes for a smoother wine, which we all enjoyed. We put a star next to the wines our group was able to taste during our visit. We liked the Zinfusion and the Tempranillo the best.
Reserve Whites
Albarino
Pinot Grigio
Falanghina
Tango
Viognier
Late Harvest Muscat
Method Champenoise
Estate Whites
Chardonnay
Sauvignon Blanc
Rose
Moscato
4 Pack Cans, White Blend
Reserve Reds
*Malbec
*Pasofusion
*Cabernet Dorsa
Dam Fine Wine
*Tannat
Cabernet Sauvignon
*Tempranillo
*Zinfusion
*Trentotto
Due Mila Quindici
Estate Reds
Merlot
Zinfandel
Cabernet Sauvignon
*4 Pack Cans, Red Blend
Castoro Cellars Winery Information
Contact Info
1-888-DAM-FINE
tastingroom@castorocellars.com
Tasting Room Hours
10:00am - 5:00pm Daily for Tasting by Appointment
Map/Address
1315 N Bethel Rd, Templeton, CA 93465
chrisdlink –
Frisbee golf, wine tasting, beautiful location and space. It was a fantastic day for our group. We were all really glad we visited and had so much fun there. Would definitely recommend to others to visit. We also joined their wine club, which is a fantastic value!