In wine destinations throughout the West, it’s no longer just about the wine. Increasingly, it’s about the food as well, making an event at a winery or wine country resort a chance to experience how wine and locally sourced cuisine can combine for a memorable pairing.
These days many wine venues are as focused on the capabilities of their award-winning chefs and catering operations as they are about wine. Some wineries include outstanding on-site restaurants and catering operations. Conversely, many hotels and resorts in wine country locations are partnering with local winemakers to enhance their culinary operations.
The upshot is that food as well as wine figures prominently in an ever-expanding array of wine country meeting activities, ranging from multicourse wine pairing dinners to culinary team building.
“The culinary aspect has become a much bigger part of the wine country experience for groups,” says David Rubens, CMP, president of Bay Magic Meetings and Tours, a DMC based in Walnut Creek, Calif. “Increasingly, they want to enjoy wine tasting as it relates to food.”
Winery Restaurants
Among wineries with a strong culinary focus is Wente Vineyards in Livermore, Calif., a 130-year-old family-operated winery with an array of group-friendly features that include an on-site restaurant with private dining rooms, an event center, a wine cave, a concert lawn and conference rooms. Under the stewardship of Executive Chef Matt Greco, Wente’s emphasis is on seasonal dishes prepared with ingredients from the winery’s extensive vegetable and herb garden, says Robert Gundrey, vice president of hospitality sales and operations.
“Our garden here has really evolved—in fact, we will be opening a pergola in the garden in June where we can do chef’s table events for groups of up to 18,” he says.
Evening events at Wente frequently start with a wine tasting reception in the historic sandstone caves, with the wines paired with passed appetizers. Then the group will move on to The Restaurant at Wente Vineyards for a multicourse dinner paired with wines.
Cooking demonstrations, culinary team-building challenges and wine blending are among the activities available for groups at Wente, Gundry says.
“A favorite team-building experience is where groups adorn pizza dough with various toppings for the chef to cook on an outside grill,” he says. “Then a panel of judges from the group tastes them to see how the pizzas pair up with wines. It’s casual, fun and not too complicated.”
Located in the Napa Valley culinary mecca of Yountville, home to the French Laundry and other renowned restaurants, the Domaine Chandon winery offers an acclaimed restaurant of its own, Etoile. Chef Perry Hoffman, named a Best New Chef by Food & Wine magazine, uses Dungeness crab, Liberty Farms duck breast and other local ingredients in dishes designed to complement the winery’s signature sparkling and still wines.
Domaine Chandon offers private venues that range from elegant dining rooms in the restaurant to outdoor areas overlooking the winery’s rolling vineyards and oak-shaded duck ponds.
In New Mexico, another example of a winery with a strong restaurant component is St. Clair Winery, the state’s largest winemaker. Along with a tasting room and event space at its headquarters in Deming, the winery operates the group-friendly St. Clair Winery & Bistro restaurants in historic areas of Albuquerque and Las Cruces.
With both indoor and patio dining for groups, the St. Clair restaurants feature menus pairing New Mexico wines with locally inspired dishes, including pastas and meats spiced with green and red chiles. PageBreak
Resort Venues
For hotels and resorts in wine country locations, offering a stellar restaurant, culinary activities and strong relationships with local wineries have become essential when it comes to competing for group business. Many also offer venues that create a winery experience without leaving the property.
At the Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa, a recent expansion doubled meeting space at the property and included the addition of the Estate Cave, a 4,000-square-foot event space designed to evoke a winery cave.
“We do winemaker’s dinners at a long candlelit table in the Cave, bringing in local winemakers to talk about the wines and how they pair with the food,” says Sheri Thomas, director of sales and marketing. “We do a lot of wine education there as well. It doesn’t feel like you’re in a hotel.”
Wine blending and events that combine chocolate with wine tasting are among the many options at Meritage, which also includes the Trinitas Cellars Tasting Room.
The nearby Napa Valley Marriott Hotel has also upped its culinary game by opening the VINeleven restaurant, headed by Chef Brian Whitmer and hosting nightly lobby receptions where Napa vintners pour and talk about their wines. Whitmer conducts al fresco cooking demonstrations for groups at the property’s vegetable garden using ingredients that participants help pick from the garden.
Outside of Seattle, the Willows Lodge in Woodinville, Wash., is another venue where both food and wine reign supreme. Its award-winning Herbfarm Restaurant offers two private dining areas and can accommodate groups of up to 90 if it is bought out.
The property takes full advantage of the fact that some 90 wineries and tasting rooms are located in the immediate area, says Janene Varden, director of sales and marketing for Willows Lodge.
“Being in wine country is a real benefit to us—we have so much access to winemakers and award-winning wines,” she says. “It’s easy for us to do wine-pairing dinners.”
The Allison Inn, located in the heart of Oregon’s Willamette Valley wine country in Newberg, is a property well known for its food and wine experiences. It features both an extensive vegetable garden as well as its own five-acre working vineyard. At its restaurant, Jory, which offers private dining rooms, groups can enjoy wine pairing dinners and chef’s table events.
Travel trade industry journalist Maria Lenhart is a former Meetings Focus editor.
