a date

Solid · Napa

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Ken Frank's rosti potato with creme fraiche and half an ounce of Regiis Ova ossetra, a dish he has been making since 1980. Wednesday to Sunday, from 5:30.

Solid · Calistoga

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Jack and Jamie Davies found a wrecked Victorian and a set of collapsed caves above St Helena in 1965 and made a Blanc de Blancs that year. You taste standing in those caves all winter.

Solid · Napa

booking essentialthe room’s own account

The 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet took the top red spot at the 1976 Paris blind tasting, above First Growth Bordeaux. You taste in sight of the vineyard that grew it.

Solid · Napa

booking essentialthe room’s own account

The akaushi beef short rib comes with potato boulangere and a Napa Cabernet glaze, and the list runs deep in back-vintage Napa Cabernet. Rock and soul are on, loud.

Listed · Napa

booking essentialthe room’s own account

A private walk through a multi-level underground cave, then a seated salon where a house chef sends a plate against each wine. $150, two hours.

Listed · Napa

book aheadthe room’s own account

Cellar 47 is a lounge cut into the cave and named for the 47 estate acres above it. The Cabernet Cave tasting seats you among barrels 130 feet down, $85.

Listed · Oakville

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Ninety minutes and $120 puts the Reserve Cabernet next to selected vintages of the Estate, under the Vaca Mountains in Oakville. Bottle service on the lawn runs to four.

Listed · St Helena

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Twenty-six blocks on 280 Rutherford acres, each picked and fermented on its own, aged apart up to two years, then blended into one wine with Carmenere in it.

Listed · Napa

book aheadthe room’s own account

The Cellar Lounge sits inside the Occidental, a gravity-fed ghost winery, and pours library bottles among the barrels. Ten to four, by reservation, off Silverado Trail.

Listed · Napa

booking essentialthe room’s own account

A Polaris Ranger takes you up the hillside blocks where Hillside Select grows, then you taste it. $295 a head, two hours, eight people at most.

Listed · Napa

book aheadthe room’s own account

UC Davis gave this vineyard's Cabernet clone Heritage status as FPS #30 in 1999, and SOLO comes off nothing else. Three estate wines for $50, walk-ins welcome.

Listed · St Helena

booking essentialthe room’s own account

One St Helena vineyard certified organic, biodynamic and regenerative organic at once. Taste Lyndenhurst against the Estate Cabernet off the same ground.

Listed · St Helena

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Ninety-five dollars for the way in, $395 to be driven out into the vineyards, seven people at a time. Next month's dinners in four states are already ticketed.

Listed · Napa

booking essentialthe room’s own account

The room on Silverado Trail outside Yountville is not Paraduxx any more. It pours across the Duckhorn Collection now, from a $50 Pinot Noir flight to a $150 food pairing.

Listed · Deer Park

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Two hundred and fifty dollars puts Alan Viader in front of you pouring out of the barrel, on Howell Mountain. Four people maximum, and the fee comes off if you buy wine.

Listed · St Helena

booking essentialthe room’s own account

André Tchelistcheff told James O'Neil Sullivan to plant this ground, and the vines went into 26 Rutherford acres in 1978. Merlot has stayed at the front ever since.

Listed · Calistoga

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Single-vineyard Napa Cabernets pulled straight out of the barrel in the cave, then the finished bottles beside them. $150, two hours, poured by the owner.

Listed · Calistoga

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Founded in 1985 on Pinot Grigio and Merlot while the valley planted Cabernet. The tasting is modeled on a Parisian salon rather than a bar.