Madonna Estate

Do yourself a favor and go check out this winery. Small, quaint, lovely property with tastings is what you’ll find at one of the oldest wineries in the county. These guys do wine right, with their old school techniques they produce exquisite Chardonnay and Pinot noir, but their Pinot Grigio, and Cabernet reserve also made it into our favorites category.
The staff is very knowledgable, non pretentious, and overly kind hearted. Ask for Linda, she’s a true sweet heart!

This winery was our third stop on the Napa/​Sonoma tour. Really friendly, informative, and vastly knowledgeable staff. Tour guide was a sweetheart and knew a LOT about the wine made and sold at the venue which I found very impressive.
My least favorite part… the tour started off with us being locked in the winery’s barrel room. While the information given was impressive, it was highly boring, and never ending. I’m actually still locked in the barrel room 6 days later listening to the same speech, so I’ll add more when they’re done talking. I was ready to create the next Mission Escapes — Napa Edition if I had to listen to anymore. The room was dark, frustrating, and people exchanged glances of who cares. In the time spent listening to the lecture, I grew a completely full beard. No need to see the Alcatraz tour, I now knew exactly how those prisoners felt.
HOWEVER, after the barrel trauma, we were finally freed and allowed into the tasting room. I had forgotten what freedom felt like, or what the light of day looked like after being locked away for so long in the barrel prison, but, like a baby calf learning to walk, I quickly adjusted and headed over to the tasting counter. THIS part was incredibly enjoyable. Our host showed us a multitude of wine products that were interesting and some people wound up purchasing. I had not seen these at any other wineries and they were very cool and useful! A fellow tourist let us use her bottle opener on our wine bottle and it worked great! We were given a mini lesson on how to properly taste wine, as well as a brief but interesting description of each wine. The pour masters were very friendly and along with our host, provided a fun atmosphere for tasting. I loved each of the wines we tasted, and we also ate lunch at the picnic tables under the vine filled overhangs. We purchased a bottle of Pinot Noir to eat with our lunch.
Excellent winery that has fantastic wine and a fun atmosphere during tasting! Great wine themed products for the kitchen and home. Definitely check it out!

I go to Napa multiple times a year as I live in the Bay Area, and friends and family who visit always want to see the beautiful wine country. I am a member at several wineries in the area as well, and in the past when I have made a reservation and had a schedule change out of my control all the wineries I have been in contact with have been very kind about this. Madonna Estate charged my group for all of the full tastings when were unable to make our reservation due to some unfortunate events happening in our schedule. SO just know before you go that their policy is VERY strict. Charging the full amount seems a little outrageous.

My first stop in Napa, just to get a quick tasting since it was along the way to where we were headed.
$ 10 for a tasting, which is waved if you buy a bottle. I ended up getting a bottle of their Pinot Noir (I was in Carneros region after all) so that we could take it to dinner later that night.
The staff was friendly and helpful, but I felt as though we were a bit rushed through the experience since there was a large tour group behind us.
Overall, it’s a cheap tasting — 5 wines for $ 10, so worth stopping in, but nothing special in terms of atmosphere. Can’t comment on their tour options since we didn’t go that route.

This was my least favorite winery out of the 4 we went to during a San Fran to Napa tour.
I liked the part of the tour where we were in the barrel room and learned the differences of aged wines and those in steel barrels.
Our tour guide was quite the b*^ch. i do not know much about wine, but want to learn. Be a little nicer to your customers whether or not they are wine experts. Also, don’t snap at them when they try to get their next tasting and do not know the name of it. It was loud I couldn’t hear!
The actual wine and experience overall here put a slight damper on the day.
I would never go back and hope the tour chooses a different winery in their itinerary.