What do a Michelin-trained culinary team, more than century-old zinfandel vines, and a former-bio-major-turned-sommelier-and-now winemaker have in common? The Brian Arden Winery Chef Experience ($225). Chef Spencer Conaty brings what he learned at Morimoto, Atelier Crenn, and Saison to the wine-paired lunch, with the assistance of experienced sous chef Ben Martin. Wines are mostly reds and are often named for special moments in owners’ Brian Harlan and Amanda Lusk-Harlan’s lives.

Quite the anomaly in Napa Valley, Brasswood is a small production winery with 17,000 square feet of caves, a restaurant, a bakery, and a bottle shop all in one. Tastings pair cabs with cheeses in the caves ($125), while the Sensory Tasting ($155) features seasonal bites and hand-blown glass globes to draw out the distinct aromas and characteristics of the wines. The Brasswood lunch pairing ($125) taps Brasswood Bar + Kitchen for four dishes paired with a flight of wines.

The 360-degree views from Joseph Phelps’ hidden terrace are almost as appetizing as the Bountiful Table experience ($350 per person, offered Wednesday to Monday at noon). Executive chef Tod Kawachi plans the five-course experience to match seven wines. The funny math there means that some courses offer two wines for comparison. To dive even deeper, the chef’s tasting menu involves nine courses ($450 per person, offered one select weekend a month at noon).

Clif Family Winery (yes, owned by the same people behind Clif Bar) is a wine tasting room and lunch spot in one, touting its own farm and Bruschetteria food truck. There are enough food and wine options to make your head spin. Available daily, the King of the Mountain experience ($85) pairs four Howell Mountain wines with four bites; the Estate Tasting experience ($125) pairs small-production wines with more involved dishes, or go for the Pasto e Vino experience ($195), intended as a complete lunch. Morning-themed tasting Rise and Wine ($65) offers a wine-paired brunch. If you want something more casual, you can order right from the food truck (Wednesday through Sunday) and opt for a patio tasting.

Napa Valley has a lot of great brunch spots, but Davies Vineyards in St. Helena is one of the few wineries that offers a brunch tasting, and it’s positively epic. The Wine & Caviar Brunch ($180, Friday to Sunday) is exactly as it sounds, pairing a full ounce of Regiis Ova caviar — plus potato chips, creme fraiche, eggs, and a handful of other breakfast bites, like tortilla Espanola and polenta cake — with glasses of Schramsberg’s renowned sparkling wine. Even dessert is considered, with cheesecake to satisfy the sweet tooth that no good brunch ignores.

The historic Louis M. Martini — it was one of the first wineries to open in Napa Valley after Prohibition — offers a diverse array of wine and food experiences. Led by executive chef Aaron Meneghelli, the Heritage Lounge Tasting ($125+) with optional food pairing offers five small-lot wines with five bites, such as pickled green strawberry, rabbit Wellington, and Nutella mille-feuille, while the Martini Park Tasting ($55) features a trio of wines and a cheese board. The two-hour Outdoor Cabana Tasting ($225, available seasonally, Thursday to Sunday) is perfect for a small group (10 people max) to lounge in the cabana for two hours while sipping wines and noshing on Italian dishes. Lastly, for $325 per person, head down to the 85-year-old underground cellar lined with giant redwood casks for a multi-course wine and food adventure.

From the culinary gardens to the working olive oil mill, Round Pond Estate products and estate-grown produce feature in the four-course Il Pranzo lunch ($225 per guest, Thursday to Sunday). Following a tour of the garden and olive grove, lunch and Round Pond wines are enjoyed al fresco on the winery terrace. The Artisan Tasting experience ($95) features a charcuterie plate with wine pairing.

The Oakville Trek ($125) starts with a tour of B Cellars’ garden and estate grounds (including a barrel tasting) and concludes with a seated wine and food pairing. Chef Derick Kuntz whips up small plates à la minute to pair with five wines, starting with whites paired with dishes like shrimp tostada and tuna crudo. The bites get progressively more substantial as the menu moves into the reds, like chicken brochette with macerated cherries and agrodolce, and two cabs paired with a beef slider on brioche. Also available for $125 is the Elevage, a customized wine tasting in the cave, paired with cheese and charcuterie. 

The Delicacies experience at Piazza Del Dotto ($225, available Thursday to Saturdays) is like a scene right out of Under the Tuscan Sun. The atmosphere is casual, though the wine and food are anything but. Start with a barrel tasting of about five wines in the marble-lined cave. Then sit down for a bottled tasting of another five wines, along with four bites prepared by French Laundry–trained chef Joshua Schwartz. The array of dishes changes regularly, but expect premium dishes such as a Maine lobster panzanella paired with chardonnay; potato cappellini with classic Italian pork belly sugo paired with pinot noir; and a chocolate chip cookie parfait with espresso mouse and the Del Dotto Dolores, a fruit-forward dessert wine. It’s worth noting that this location is separate from the historic Del Dotto Winery and Caves on Atlas Peak Road, which is closed through at least May 2024.

Though Handwritten was founded more than a decade ago, its Yountville tasting room only opened in 2020 and winemaker Rob Lloyd’s experience is extensive. He worked for Cakebread, Stag’s Leap, and La Crema, before joining the Handwritten team. The Bread and Butter experience ($100) puts butter on the pedestal it deserves, with three types on offer — an Amish cow’s milk butter with sea salt, a goat and cow milk blend from Petaluma, and an all-goat milk version from Wisconsin — to taste alongside the wines — a sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, and three cabernets. With white truffle potato chips, bread from Bouchon Bakery, coppa salame, and P’tit Basque cheese, it’s like a savory afternoon tea time but with wine.

This famous sparkling house offers a variety of indoor and outdoor food and wine experiences. The Ultimate Culinary Journey ($155) involves a five-course tasting menu that changes seasonally and is meant to pair with Domaine’s wines, designed by chef Sebastian Ziebarth. The current menu pairs toybox melon and yuzu with Mt. Veeder Brut; striped bass crudo and black garlic with the Etoile Brut; and dry-aged duck breast with peaches, figs, and a reserve meunier. The Togetherness Lunch ($135) pairs a family-style lunch with three sparkling wines.

Trefethen proprietor Janet Trefethen played a major role in kickstarting Napa Valley’s world-class culinary industry in the 1970s when she founded the Napa Valley Cooking School and brought in top chefs from all over the world, including Thomas Keller, so it’s natural that the tradition continues via food and wine experiences. Taste the Estate ($125) pairs five completely different wines with plates like wild mushroom mousse with toasted brioche, sous vide beef short rib, and cheese arancini with preserved red peppers.

Have you ever had a very cool friend who owns an amazing mid-century modern house on the cliffs of Malibu? Yeah, neither have we. But a visit to Ashes & Diamonds is what we imagine that must feel like. The food-friendly, lower alcohol wines express the 1960s style of Napa Valley winemaking, natural for pairing with all manner of exceptional, deceptively casual foods by chef Ethan Speizer. While several wine tastings include cheeses or other small bites, the wine-and-food experience ($175) is the most substantial and features five wines with family-style dishes, including a recent beet preparation that nods at the classic Jewish bagel and schmear. The wines and menu both change seasonally.