There are more than 400 options for wine tasting in Napa Valley, but only a handful of tasting rooms actually serve those wines the way they were meant to be sipped: with food.
Yet finally, there’s a growing trend in wineries foregoing the customary cheese and charcuterie board for elevated, hyper-seasonal and authentically farm-to-table wine and food experiences (all by appointment). Take Piazza Del Dotto’snew five-course Delicacies tasting, for instance, featuring a gourmet Maine Lobster Roll as the centerpiece of a former French Laundry chef’s Tuscan-inspired menu.
So watch out Thomas Keller — each experience on this list is on par with a visit to some of wine country’s top fine dining restaurants, and guests never leave hungry.
Saint Helena, CA 94574
Quite the anomaly in Napa Valley, Brasswood is a small production winery with 17,000 sq. ft. of caves, a restaurant, bakery and bottle shop all in one. This makes for an obvious and convenient pairing of the estate wines with dishes from the Brasswood Bar + Kitchen. The new Private Lunch Pairing ($125, available at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. daily) begins with a tour of the winery and caves, followed by four wines and plates: gooey, hand-pulled mozzarella, a mushroom and short rib sugo, herb crusted lamb, and a rich and creamy butterscotch panna cotta for dessert.
2. Joseph Phelps Vineyards
St Helena, CA 94574
The 360-degree vineyard views from Joseph Phelps’ hidden terrace are almost as appetizing as the Bountiful Table experience ($275 per person, available on Wednesdays, but moving to Fridays in 2018 ). Allie Phelps, sous chef and granddaughter of founder Joe Phelps, incorporates some of her grandmother’s recipes into the five-course meal, like “Barb’s” Yellow Tomato Gazpacho. Yet the star of the menu might just have to be the Foie Gras Tortellini, topped with chef Brian Sutton’s version of mushroom bacon, and served in poultry jus that took 28 hours to cook.
3. Chef’s Table at Long Meadow Ranch
St Helena, CA 94574
The Chef’s Table experience ($145 per person, choose lunch or dinner) at Long Meadow Ranch literally goes from garden to table, starting out in the estate culinary garden for a peek at what you’ll soon dine on inside a cozy 1874 farmhouse. Former French Laundry chef Aaron Marthaler tends to keep it fresh and simple, but he’s not afraid to shake up the multi-course menu with an adventurous dish like corned beef tongue.
4. Round Pond Estate Winery
Napa, CA 94558
From the culinary gardens to their working olive oil mill, winery chef Jamie Prouten integrates estate produce, plus in-house oils and vinaigrettes into every single dish of Round Pond’s five-course Il Pranzo lunch ($125, Monday-Saturday at 11:30 a.m.). Following a winery tour and tasting, lunch and Round Pond wines are enjoyed al fresco on the rooftop terrace. The meal often starts with a baby lettuce salad paired with a fusion of vinaigrettes — like Blood Orange Lavender and Red Wine Herb — and finishes with the winery’s Signature Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake.
5. B Cellars
Napa, CA 94562
Aptly named Oakville Trek ($70, available daily), this wine and food tour of B Cellars’ winery, culinary gardens, production facilities, and caves, works up an appetite. Chef Derick Kuntz whips up small plates to pair with five wines along the journey, starting light with the sauvignon blanc and perhaps a seared shrimp with pineapple salad. The “B Bites” then get progressively more umami as the menu moves into the reds; think, a smoked duck ravioli paired with pinot noir.
6. Cakebread Cellars
Napa, CA 94558
Resident chef Tom Sixsmith gets creative with whatever’s growing in the winery’s estate garden for Cakebread’s Food and Wine Experience ($45 per person, offered Monday-Friday until November, then Thursday and Friday). Matching four wines with inventive bites, he’s been known to harvest cabbage to create a Korean kimchi pancake, or combine rhubarb with a red wine mustard to garnish juicy lamb rillettes.
7. Robert Mondavi Winery
Oakville, CA 94562
The Harvest of Joy tour and lunch ($125, Wednesday and Saturday at 11:30 a.m.) at the historic Robert Mondavi Winery culminates in a three-course lunch in the vineyard room with views of the famed To Kalon Vineyard. Longtime Mondavi winery chef Jeff Mosher selects the day’s dishes to pair with a trio of wines: a white, like the Fumé Blanc — Mondavi coined this wine as a way to increase the popularity of sauvignon blanc back in the 60s — a red and a dessert pouring. Fall starter options include a duck confit salad or pumpkin soup, followed by sea bass or grilled lamb shoulder for the main dish. A pumpkin semifreddo and oven roasted apple cake shine on the seasonal dessert list.
8. Silver Oak Cellars
Oakville, CA 94562
Chef Dominic Orsini has mastered the art of sustainable cooking (he’s also a sommelier) using anything and everything at his disposal from the winery, even recycling vine cuttings to smoke meats and barrel staves to fire up the wood-burning oven. This makes Silver Oak’s Silver Wine and Food Pairing ($75, offered Monday-Thursday at 3 p.m.) the greenest around. The new fall menu pairs four red wines with plates like handmade, pork-stuffed agnolotti pasta in a bacon broth and 26-month aged gouda accompanied by three-month dry-aged beef Bresaola.
9. Robert Sinskey Vineyards
Napa, CA 94558
One of the early adopters of elevated food and wine pairings, Robert Sinskey’s most robust offering is the five-course Chef’s Table experience ($175, Saturday and Sunday at 12 p.m.), hosted in the intimate library room within the caves. Chef Maria Helm Sinskey (also the wife of proprietor Robert Sinskey) utilizes produce from the winery garden and almost always includes a dish featuring the estate’s pasture-raised lamb. In addition to dessert, you’ll often get a bonus treat in the form of a few samplings of library vintages.
10. Piazza Del Dotto Winery & Caves
Napa, CA 94558
The Delicacies experience at the new Piazza Del Dotto ($95, available Thurs.-Mon. At 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.) is like a scene right out of Under the Tuscan Sun. The vibe is casual, but the food is anything but. French Laundry-trained chef Joshua Schwartz pairs a generous seven pours of wine with hearty plates like a Maine Lobster Roll on a handmade toasted brioche bun and a Snake River Farms Wagyu slider with black truffle.
11. Pine Ridge Vineyards
Napa, CA 94558
Wine and dine inside Cellar 47, a cozy underground lair that’s tucked deep into Pine Ridge Vineyards’ hillside caves. The Savor Pine Ridge experience ($125 per person, offered daily) includes five Pine Ridge cabernet sauvignons, sourced from some of Napa Valley’s most distinct growing regions, with savory small plates. Nothing balances out these big, complex reds like a bite of smoked duck biscuit with fig jam, or a salty pork rillette, slathered on walnut toast and topped with sweet and sour prunes.
12. Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars
Napa, CA 94558
This winery put Napa Valley wine on the map when their cabernet sauvignon won the 1976 Judgment of Paris, and now, their new Cellarius Kitchen Experience ($125 per person, offered Monday-Thursday at 1 p.m.) is putting all of their neighbors on notice. Whether he’s whipping up polenta from buttered popcorn or plating beet-stained salmon on a pink Himalayan sea salt block, Chef Travis Westrope’s creativity knows no bounds.
Map points are listed North to South, not ranked. For more great bars and restaurants throughout the Valley, check out Eater’s Essential Napa picks, or head over to Sonoma for more options.