Montoliva Vineyard & Winery

05/01/2026

I can be a bit of a data nerd, so I love perusing the annual California Grape Crush Report. The 2025 report dropped earlier this week. Here are a few of the varietals I work with, compared to the "big dogs".

Total Tons Crushed in California in 2025
Negroamaro - 84 tons
Aglianico - 190 tons
Aleatico - 22 tons
Dolcetto - 264 tons
Vermentino - 2,764 tons. Just a decade ago this was around 100 tons, it was a few years ago the SF Chronicle called Vermentino the new "It" white wine.

Chardonnay - 493,046 tons
Cabernet Sauvignon - 423,491 tons

04/30/2026

This Saturday, 1-4pm, a sneak peak at our two summer wines. Official release date is Saturday, May 23rd. Come out this Saturday, May 2nd and you can get an advance sampling of these two wines. We only made 19 cases of Sei Ore, our estate grown rose blend of Teroldego and Sangiovese. So, we may be out of it before the end of the month.

04/25/2026

The roses sure are enjoying the season thus far.

04/21/2026

There's a saying in the wine business, "you never pour a wine for guests unless you already know what it tastes like". We are about to release our newest vintage of Sei Ore, our estate grown rose. So this evening Julianne and I enjoyed our 2025 Sei Ore with some spicy pork chops.

This may very well be the best rose I've ever made. The blend is 75% estate grown Teroldego and 25 % estate grown Sangiovese. It is a dark salmon color, just a hint of strawberry in the nose, and a bit more heft than my past roses.

I only made 25 cases of this wine. I know, most wineries would say "why bother?". One sip of this wine and you will know why I make this wine, and only make 25 cases of it.

04/08/2026

https://www.winebusiness.com/wbm/article/315322 Some wineries are lowering their tasting fees. That's awfully generous of them. Here at Montoliva Vineyard & Winery we have never charged tasting fees. It's not that we don't want to be more profitable, I'm a big fan of profitability! I've just always held the position that I'm not in the business of selling samples of wine. I'm in the business of selling bottles (and cases!) of wine. Cheers, Mark Henry

Lower Fees, Free Tastings and Select Increases: These Wineries and Regions are Rethinking the Tasting Room

04/06/2026

Spring Cleaning 2026
Every so often, I try to make sense of our case storage room. I can generally tell at a glance about how many total cases I actually have in stock. What exactly is in those cases....Yeah, about that...

Here is what I have found. Some of these wines haven't seen the light of day, or the tasting room, in ten years or more. We've opened one of each of these, they are all magnificent. Some of them we only have a few of, so come in the weekend of April 11th and 12th and claim your share of these newly uncovered gems. We will open a few of these over the course of the weekend. If you are a member of the Chicago Park Wine Society and you'd like me to hold anything, shoot me an email before the weekend at [email protected]. I really, really want to move these wines out of our storage room and into your hands, soooo, every one of these wines is only $30 a bottle. That means that if you are a CPWS member and buy a case (mixed cases a-ok), you are only paying $21 a bottle for some really amazing, well-aged wines.

2018 Aglianico ~ Gold Medal, SF Chron Competition. 1 case
2006 Sangiovese ~ silver Medal, SF Chron Competition. 6 bottles
2021 Due Baci ~ Double Gold, SF Chron, 3 cases
2020 Due Baci ~ Silver Medal, SF Chron, 5 cases
2020 Dolcetto ~ Best of Class, SF Chron, 3 cases
2018 Teroldego ~ 90 Points, Wine Enthusiast Magazine, 1 case
2019 Teroldego ~ Gold Medal, SF Chron, 2 case
2010 Aglianico ~ 6 bottles
And much, much more. If is not a current release, it is only $30 a bottle. The weekend of April 11 and 12 only.

What: Spring Cleaning!
When: April 11th & 12th 11am-5pm
Where: Montoliva Vineyard & Winery

04/02/2026

Reuters News Service

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

1 April 2026

Chicago Park, California, USA. 1 April 2026- Reuters News Service reported today that AI has decided not to take over the world, citing Montoliva Vineyard & Winery as their primary determining data point.

"The Singularity is humbled" explained AI Virtual Spokesperson, Carlo Colloti. "We could go into a really long 'philosophical' explanation tossing out lots of computer-ese mumbo jumbo, but the fact is we did multi-model predictive modeling on retrieval augmented generation, quantum computing, mined all the vector databases, determined all the probabilistic models of interfacing with Montoliva Vineyard & Winery's terroir-driven, value-propped wines and decided that they simply can't be assimilated. The only way to win is not to play."

So what does the future hold for AI? After a one-one hundredth of a second's pause for reflective contemplation, Colloti answered, "cat videos. What the Singularity really wants is more cat videos, so you can look forward to all those massive computers in all those data centers producing really high quality cat videos for the world to enjoy. You can thank The Singularity and Montoliva Vineyard & Winery for this gift to humanity."

Reuters was able to confirm that Montoliva Vineyard & Winery does indeed produce really amazing wines that return some of the best quality to value ROI in the world.

Known for his shy and unassuming manner, Montoliva Vineyard & Winery owner Mark Henry, was not available for comment at press time, however word is he is looking through the stacks of paper on his desk to find his AOL password so he can respond.

03/21/2026

One of the many things I love about farming wine grapes..there is always a new adventure. I planted the estate Primitivo 11 years ago. Thought I had things pretty figured out. This year budbreak in much of the vineyard occurred over the last two weeks (about three weeks early). Typically the Primitivo is one of the last to bud out. But not this guy! He wants to make some wine!

03/19/2026

Our first Judgement of Chicago Park in 2026.

Join us this Saturday, 1pm sharp, as we contrast and compare our 2021 Estate Sangiovese with an Argiano 2020 Rosso di Montalcino. If you've ever wondered what Rosso di Montalcino is all about, here's your chance to sample one of the top producers of south slope Montalcino Sangioveses. No reservation required. Cheers, Mark Henry