Top Napa Wineries with Wine & Cheese Tasting, Southern Napa Valley
A Napa Travel Guide including Napa, Carneros, Yountville, Oakville and Rutherford
Next time you plan a Napa Valley wine tasting tour, don’t forget the cheese. Napa wineries up and down the valley now offer wine and cheese tasting experiences, aimed at satisfying the palates of culinary travelers who are always hungry for new tastes. Due to the response to our list of the Top Sonoma Wineries with Wine & Cheese Pairing, we’ve created a companion travel guide for the “other valley”—the Top Napa Wineries with Wine & Cheese Tasting, Southern Napa Valley. This Napa wineries list is updated annually and includes vintners in Carneros, Napa, Yountville, Oakville and Rutherford. (Rutherford Crossroad is our dividing point between north and south of the valley). If you’re deciding where to go in Napa for a relaxing, beautiful wine tasting experience, we’ve helped whittle down the list. All Napa wineries change their wine and cheese tasting pairings seasonally, bringing out the best in both. Listed prices are per person, and reservations are required in most cases. If any of your favorites aren’t on this list, please leave a comment. If you’re wine tasting in St. Helena or Calistoga, view our Top Napa Valley Wine & Cheese Tasting, Up Valley.
Top Southern Napa Wineries with Wine and Cheese Tasting Map
Top Napa Wine and Cheese Tasting, Southern Napa Valley
Artesa Vineyards & Winery
Artesa winery’s Spanish heritage is reflected in the Vino con Queso experience, which pairs Limited Release and Reserve wines, including chardonnay, pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon, with artisan cheeses. This cheese tasting is served in Artesa’s sleek Grand Salon, renovated in 2017. The 350-acre estate is dotted with sculpture and other contemporary artworks. Its founder, Codorniu Raventos, began making wine in Spain in 1551. $60
Black Stallion Estate Winery
Taste local artisan cheeses, dried cranberries and almonds with the winery’s chardonnays, cabernet sauvignons, pinot noirs and zinfandels in the Wine & Cheese Pairing experience. It’s available at the Tasting Bar ($35) and as a Private Experience ($45).
Chimney Rock
Enjoy the Estate Tour & Barrel Tasting, which starts with a guided tour of the grounds and dramatic views of the towering Palisades. Then head to the cellar to sample wines straight from the barrel, and move to an intimate seated tasting of sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon and more, accompanied by complementary artisan cheeses. $85
Clos du Val
This Stags Leap District producer includes a cheese plate with its Hirondelle Exclusive tasting. Tour the Hirondelle Vineyard, then take a seat at a private table and sample current-release cabernet sauvignons from this venerable winery, 46 years young and always evolving. Clos du Val cabernet was one that represented California in the 1976 “Judgment of Paris” tasting, which establishing Napa Valley as a world-class wine region. $65
Darioush Winery
The Fine Wines, Artisan Cheeses experience begins with a tour of the Persian-inspired winery and ends in the barrel chai for a seated tasting of Signature Chardonnay, Signature Shiraz and other wines, paired with artisan cheeses and culinary bites from owners Darioush and Shahpar Khaledi’s family recipes. $75
Domaine Carneros
This stellar sparkling wine producer with Champagne roots (owned by the Taittinger family) sells two cheese plates, one for pairing with bubblies, the other for the winery’s still wines. Four different tasting options are available, each with four different wines—flights of all sparkling, all still wines or a combination of the two. Cheese plates feature three selections for $20; wine tasting flights arrange from $30 to 40. These Napa Valley wine and cheese tastings take place in the French-inspired chateau’s salon or on the stone terrace, overlooking Carneros vineyards–making it one of the best wineries in Napa with a view. $50-$60
Hope & Grace Winery
This small Napa wine producer (3,000 cases a year) of sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir, malbec and cabernet sauvignon welcomes visitors, by appointment, to its cozy salon in the heart of Yountville. Winemaker Charles Hendricks also bottles, under the Hendricks label, pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon in special vintages. Tastings include artisan cheeses. $30
6540 Washington Street, Yountville, 707-944-2500, hopeandgracewines.com
Inglenook
Movie mogul Francis Ford Coppola’s devotion to restoring this historic Napa wine estate includes multiple guest experiences to suit any visitor. For those keen on cheese pairings, the seated Heritage Tasting in the Pennino Salon matches artisan cheeses with a flight of estate wines, including the flagship, cabernet sauvignon-based Rubicon. $45
Jessup Cellars
The seated tasting of five to six wines in the Tasting Gallery comes with a platter of artisan cheeses, mixed nuts and chocolate. While experiencing the matches, take in the curated artwork on the walls. Best known for its proprietary red blends, Jessup also produces varietals including sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. $40.
Miner Family Winery
The Private Cave Tour and Tasting ($50) can be enhanced by a cheese pairing, at $15 per person. Reserve a spot in the Oracle Blending Seminar ($65) and Sommelier Experience ($100), which come with cheese pairings likely to include Manchego, Mimolette, and Cypress Grove Midnight Moon. These Napa wine experiences involve strolling the caves, sampling wines aging in barrels, and sit-down tastings of Miner’s broad range of varietals and flagship Oracle red blend.
Mumm Napa
Add a $28 artisanal cheese, dried fruit and nut tray to the Oak Terrace Tasting and discover how sparkling wine is a fine foil for salty, savory fare. This Champagne Mumm outpost offers tastings of limited-production and aged sparkling wines on the Oak Terrace, with views of the vines and hills of Rutherford. $45
Odette Estate
Three sister Napa wineries–Odette Estate, CADE Estate Winery and PlumpJack Estate Winery–come together at Odette’s Estate Tour & Tasting. Cheese finds a spot at the table, alongside current-release wines from the three producers. It’s an innovative and pleasurable education on the subtle differences in the wines from each Napa region, and how they match marvelously with specific cheeses. $80
Peju Province Winery
Cheeses from local, limited-production creameries are complemented by Peju wines in the Small-Farm Cheese and Wine Pairing experience, held every Friday. Served on a shady courtyard terrace or in the Peju kitchen (depending on the season), the Napa wine and cheese tasting experience includes four wines paired with four fromages and homemade jams from winery chef Alex Espinoza. $65
Pine Ridge Vineyards
Cool down with a Wine Tasting and Cave Tour at Pine Ridge, which begins in a demonstration vineyard and culminates in a seated Napa wine and cheese tasting in the winery’s caves, surrounded by Dale Chihuly glass sculptures. $75
Quixote Winery
Guests will marvel at the quirky, colorfully tiled architecture of this Napa winery, with its gold-leaf onion dome and sod-covered roof, designed by Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Winery founder Carl Doumani sold the Stags Leap property to China-based Le Melange group in 2014, and cabernet sauvignon, petite sirah and malbec continue to be made here. The two wine tasting options are paired with cheese: Quixote Tasting (tour of the property and a flight of five wines) and Quixote Reserve Tasting (tour and a flight of five wines, ending with a vertical of Reserve Petite Syrah (quixotically spelled by the winery). $65-$85
Robert Mondavi Winery
Robert Mondavi tirelessly preached the rewards of serving wine with food. His namesake winery’s Exclusive Cellar Tasting includes an estate tour and seated exploration of reserve and older wines in the To Kalon Cellar, accompanied by artisanal cheeses and charcuterie matched to varietals including sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon. In addition, the 5 p.m. walking tour of the grounds concludes with a tasting of Reserve and winery-exclusive wines, with cheese and charcuterie. When a chill is in the air, the twilight tasting moves to the Spotlight Lounge and its warming fireplace. Both tastings offered for $55.
Priest Ranch
A sister brand to Somerston Estate, Priest Ranch has made Napa wine and cheese tasting a focus at its downtown Yountville tasting room. Four wines are matched with four provisions, including charcuterie and Cowgirl Creamery cheeses. $50
The Hess Collection
The Tour, Wine and Cheese Pairing experience ($75) begins with a guided tour of the art-focused Napa winery on Mount Veeder, followed by a tasting of current-release wines served with cheese and seasonal fruits and nuts. A visit to founder Donald Hess’ stunning contemporary art collection is included. A more in-depth experience, the Vineyard Excursion: Wine & Cheese Pairing, is comprised of a guided ATV tour of the historic Mont LaSalle vineyard and a tasting of estate Napa wines paired artisan cheeses, fruits, nuts and other seasonal bites from the winery’s garden. $135
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