Summer travel trends come and go, but Napa Valley is a classic for a reason. With long, sunshine-filled days, lush, green scenery, and a stacked calendar of concerts and family-friendly festivals, summer is an especially exciting time to visit. This year promises to be especially buzzy, with just-opened restaurants, tasting experiences, and even a few new high-fashion addresses to put on your radar. Read on!
What’s New in Napa Valley
A slew of creative dining and tasting experiences are adding new vibrancy to Napa Valley’s gastronomic scene just in time for summer. In downtown Napa, travelers can enjoy an elevated home-style dining experience at The Gentleman Farmer Bungalow, launched by wine-making couple Jeff Durham and Joey Wolosz inside a reimagined 1926 California Craftsman bungalow. The six-course Gentleman Farmer’s Lunch ($250) is the signature experience, featuring dishes inspired by the couple’s family recipes, such as roasts, rillettes, and soufflés. Nearby is the newly opened Maison Fayard bottle shop, which doubles as a glassware boutique, artists’ showroom, and tasting lounge, and Folklore, a record store (with new and pre-loved vinyls) and bar that’s also home to nonprofit public radio station KCMU 103.3 FM, which broadcasts from the space. Also downtown, Moro, a Moroccan counter service spot from Michelin Guide-worthy chef Morad Lahlou opened at Oxbow Market this past spring. The restaurant draws inspiration from the food stalls at Jemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakech’s famous night market. Coming in June 2024: after a brief “pop-up” location housed within the popular Oxbow Market, Stateline Road Smokehouse will open its permanent location in the Rail Arts District, serving Kansas City-style BBQ favorites like baby back ribs smothered in signature sweet-tangy 816 sauce, savory burnt ends, and signature chicken. Stateline Road Smokehouse is the first Black-owned restaurant in the city of Napa.
Over in Yountville, The Kitchen at Priest Ranch serves breakfast all day (try the breakfast gnocchi with broccoli rabe and fried eggs), colorful salads, and comfort classics like the KPR smashburger on a Bouchon bun. Snag a seat on the rooftop dining terrace to sip wine around the fire pit. Just a 10-minute drive away is Signorello Estate, which was the only Napa winery lost in the 2017 Glass Fire. Now, seven years later, the winery is preparing to reopen in June 2024 following a total rebuild led by California’s Taylor Lombardo Architects. The new space will blend seamlessly with its environment, with its low-lying design and new cave facilities.
Father north in Calistoga, the famed Brannan Cottage Inn now has a sister property: the five-suite Brannan Lofts. Located on Lincoln Avenue, just a stone’s throw from the original 1862-era property, the new accommodations are ideal for extended stays and family getaways, featuring spacious rooms with ample living space and well-stocked kitchenettes.
Also new for this season is the seven-course “Tasting on the Rails” dinner aboard the Napa Valley Wine Train. As part of the three-hour journey, passengers will dine inside refurbished century-old Pullman train cars pulled by 1950s-vintage Streamliner locomotives while enjoying gourmet dishes (think: beef tenderloin and herb garlic prawns) and wine hailing from the very AVAs the train route passes through—allowing travelers to travel and taste in real time. Watch this space: The train is moving full steam ahead with plans to refurbish its entire locomotive fleet this year in order to reach new environmental targets. With new engines manufactured by Rolls-Royce, the train cars will run with low fuel consumption and will be nearly silent and odorless.
Five Napa Valley Experiences You May Not Know About
We all know Napa Valley for its vine-covered rolling hills and charming towns. But locals know a more “hidden” side to the destination, with off-the-beaten track adventures and experiences. Here are a few to put on you radar:
Calistoga’s Petrified Forest was formed following a volcanic eruption over 3 million years ago. The volcanic ash buried a forest, including a grove of enormous redwoods, creating a surreal landscape of trees that turned to stone. A guided tour takes visitors through a hilly half-mile loop, passing by some of the forest’s most interesting trees, including the 65-foot “Queen,” which was predicted to be 2,000 years old at the time of the eruption.
For more mind-boggling natural beauty, head to American Canyon—the most southerly of Napa Valley’s five towns—which spans rolling hills, wetlands, and the 642-acre Newell Open Space Preserve. Birders will want to beeline for the American Canyon Wetlands Trail for the chance to see swans, mockingbirds, egrets, and great horned owls.
For one of the largest and most eccentric collections of northern California art, visit the Di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, which encompasses 217 acres, two galleries, a sculpture meadow, olive grove, one lake, and 1,600 works of art by painters and sculptors with ties to the Bay Area, such as Robert Arneson, considered a leaded in the funk art movement and Joan Brown, whose work was featured at the Whitney Museum at the age of 22. The exhibitions rotate approximately every four months, so there’s always something to see; it’s also worth checking out the events calendar to take part in public programming like artist talks, site-wide festivals, and hikes.
Did you know that the fashion house Chanel owns St. Supéry Estate Vineyards and Winery? Located in Napa, naturally this bucolic estate is a favorite wine-tasting destination of the fashion set, but it’s also a popular spot among health-conscious gourmands, thanks to its Ampelography Master Class, guests can learn how to identify individual grape varieties by the distinct attributes of their leaves.
Napa’s volcanic soils aren’t just a boon for winemaking—they also make for some indulgent pampering in the form of healing mud baths, which are purported to provide relief from joint and muscle pain (plus boosted skin radiance and circulation!) for thousands of years. The OG spot to “take the waters”? Dr. Wilkinson’s Backyard Resort & Mineral Springs, which was founded in 1952 and has been described as “a rare remaining slice of wine country’s past.” The newly renovated retro-styled property has three spring-fed mineral pools (each heated between 85- and 104-degrees Fahrenheit), Calistoga volcanic ash mud baths, and wine-powered beauty treatments like the Premier Cru age-defying facial.
Napa Valley: A Rising Fashion Destination
Napa’s high-fashion connection isn’t necessarily new—French luxury group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) and Chanel have been investing in the region’s winemaking since the 1970s. But increasingly, Napa Valley is emerging as a destination for fashion-obsessed travelers. Style mavens can get their fix at the new Elyse Walker boutique in St. Helena, or at Veronica Beard’s new Napa Valley outpost (the brand’s sixth location in California), or they can book a personal styling/shopping appointment at Saks Fifth Avenue’s Fifth Avenue Club at Stanly Ranch, an Auberge Resorts Collection. The Aspen-born western shop Kemo Sabe has made headlines for its cowboy hats worn by the likes of Beyoncé, Shania Twain, and Kevin Costner; now, travelers to Napa Valley can get their custom fit at the new Kemo Sabe pop-up shop located in First Street Napa plaza retail center. Get your fancy Western wear now through June at this beautifully appointed niche boutique.
