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Saturday 11am - 5pm Sunday 11am - 5pm

Montoliva Vineyard & Winery

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Grass Valley, CA
Montoliva Vineyard & Winery

Benvenuto a Montoliva! We specialize in Tuscan inspired quality wines. Intense, powerful, lean wine. Never any charge for tasting.
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Open weekends, 12pm-5pm Saturday and Sunday, with last pouring starting at 4:30pm

10/11/2026

On Friday we harvested and crushed our estate Montepulciano. And with that, the farming side of our operation comes to a close for this season. A few weeks of fermentation and maceration, then into barrels.

10/03/2026

Now that's a load of Falanghina, picked from our Wabash Avenue Vineyard last week. Two bins, heaping full, that's about 1 ton of fruit.

If you follow any other NorCal w**ery's social media you might be thinking, "hey Mark, I'm reading about how everyone is all done and wrapped up for the year. How come you are still harvesting?"

It is true, we are about 3/4th of the way through harvest. Picking our estate Sangiovese tomorrow, Aglianico in maybe 7-10 more days, Montepulciano perhaps a few days after that. Two things at play, I work with some varietals, like Aglianico, that are very late ripeners. No matter where they are grown, they will ripen way later than just about anything else...except Montepulciano, which is a really, really late ripener. The other factor is elevation. At 2,300 feet elevation we have been spared (for now) most, but not all, of the effects of global climate change. Our growing seasons still run a bit more on the "normal" side. Most years we are still harvesting a month after everyone else is done.

Oh yeah, and see all the pine trees in the background? There has been a lot of chatter lately, especially in El Dorado County, about "Sierra Spice", this notion that the presence of pine trees (common at our elevation, not so common in lower elevation vineyards) lends towards a terroir-driven flavor profile unique to Sierra Foothill w**es. I'm mildly skeptical but willing to be convinced. Cheers, Mark Henry

09/14/2026

One of Karl Marx's most resonating critiques of industrial age capitalism was that it creates a soul ravaging disconnect between the producer (worker) and the product. Here at Montoliva Vineyard & Winery, we don't really have that problem. We are elbow, knee and neck deep in grapes. We become truly "One" with the w**e we are producing. On Sunday, October 4th, you have the opportunity to create your own connection with the w**e you are drinking by helping us harvest our estate Sangiovese vineyard. Harvest begins at first light (7am), it generally takes us about 3-4 hours to get all 3-4 tons picked. Then it's time for a special Harvest Dedication and ch*****ne brunch. It is a lot of work, and it is deeply gratifying, and soul quenching. So, there it is. You can prove Marx right or you can come out on Sunday, October 4th, and help complete that connection between producer and product.

Join us. It will do your soul good!

Please note, this year we are asking for an RSVP.

What: Harvest 2026
Where: Montoliva Vineyard & Winery
When: 7am, Sunday, October 4th

Anything Else? This year we are doing things a little different. To better manage both the harvesting, and to properly prepare for harvest brunch (as in: make sure we have enough ch*****ne), we are asking that you RSVP. We are limiting the crew this year to 50, so if you are coming out, please RSVP soon via email at [email protected]

09/10/2026

Another Day, Another Harvest. Today it was just under 2,000 lbs of pristine Negroamaro grapes from our estate vineyard. That's 3 days in a row of harvesting by hand. Man am I gassed! After all these years it never ceases to amaze me that there are hard-working people out there who do this every day through the harvest season. They are truly under appreciated.

09/10/2026

See, what I like about Teroldego is that it is a "self-harvesting" varietal. Just lay the bins down and the fruit drops into it. Today 5000 lbs of Teroldego from the Wabash Avenue Vineyard just dropped into bins. Ok, it had some help from a great crew.

09/09/2026

Today Olivia harvested 4,500 lbs of beautiful Dolcetto grapes from the Wabash Avenue Vineyard. Ok, she had some help...but she could have done it by herself!

08/26/2026

Charlotte doing some good old fashion stomping on Nero d'Avola that we are producing in a style more typical of high end Pinot Noirs...whole cluster fermentation. Why you may ask would we do that with a varietal that originates a loooong ways from Burgundy? Allow me to explain (and those who know me know I will never use a few words when many will suffice). This year I elected to purchase a couple of tons of Nero from an El Dorado County grower to supplement our Nero. Harvest season came on fast this year and by the time we got this fruit picked it was almost 28 brix (yeah...I know). At this density we simply can't run it through our crusher destemmer, it clogs up. We tried using our old hand crank crusher destemmer...no go with that either. So, we simply dumped all the fruit, stems and all, into a couple of fermenters. Because it is so dense and springy, we can't pe*****te the top with our punchdown tool; on go the boots and we start stomping. YeeHaw. What kind of w**e am I making? I have no idea, I'll let you know.

08/19/2026

Harvest is coming...we just know it is.

08/15/2026

So, having some fun with ChatGPT this evening, I asked how much should I pay for a good quality Sierra Foothill Teroldego? The answer:

Regional benchmarks like Sierra Foothill producer Montoliva Vineyard & Winery price their Teroldego at around $40 a bottle.

That's right, we were name checked in ChatGPT as a regional benchmark. I'm smiling. Cheers, Mark

08/10/2026

Spending a nice summer evening at the Center for the Arts, Corrine Bailey Rae concert, brought to you by Montoliva Vineyard and Winery. Julianne and I first heard her music in 2006 in the lobby of our pensione in Prague.

Address

15629 Mount Olive Road
Grass Valley, CA
95945

Opening Hours

Saturday	11am - 5pm
Sunday	11am - 5pm

Website

http://www.montoliva.com/

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