Regions: California | Spring & Summer

There are a lot of beautiful vineyards in California’s wine country, but Medlock Ames’s Bell Mountain Vineyard stands out even amongst the illustrious crowd in the Alexander Valley. Much of this 338 acre ranch is uncultivated, making it feel more like a nature preserve than a vineyard. In fact, its 44 vibrant acres of organic grapes and olive groves are bisected by a wildlife corridor to allow animals to access the neighboring Pepperwood Preserve. Our charming host and co-founder Ames Morison will tell us all about his approach to both farming and winemaking as we walk through the vineyards to the table — which we may choose to set amongst the grapevines or down the road lined with oak trees glowing golden in late afternoon light. There, Edgar Zecua from Fleetwood will serve a creative feast unique to California’s wine country. Chef Edgar is no stranger to cooking over open fire, so we are sure he will bring some exciting surprises out into the field for this dinner.

Chef Elliot Bell is getting back into the field kitchen at a site that means a lot to him. He got married there! Elliot introduced us to the historic Lewelling Ranch, one of the oldest vineyards in Napa. John Lewelling settled this land in 1864, and now the sixth generation of his descendants carry on his legacy. Husband and wife team Erik Dodd and Haley Wight help to manage the ranch and make wine under Haley’s new label, Hayfork, which they can’t wait to share with us. We’ll set the table down a row of grapevines, or maybe in the olive grove nestled inside the vineyards. We’ll wander the fruit orchards scattering the property and gaze at cows grazing on the hillsides. Elliot, a French Laundry alum, is opening his own restaurant in St. Helena this summer, named Charlie’s. He is a staunch supporter of the Napa Valley community, and has spent years building relationships with the local farmers as a volunteer firefighter. We can’t wait for Charlie’s to open its doors, but we may be even more excited for chef Elliot’s event this spring.

The dusty green rows of Italian olive trees may transport you to Tuscany while the soft purple lavender bushes lining the drive may take your mind to Provence—but the rolling hills of the Petaluma Gap will remind you that you are squarely in Northern California. At the third generation-run McEvoy Ranch, you’ll be treated to their estate extra-virgin olive oil, small-batch wines and a diverse range of other products, all grown with preservation of the natural ecosystem in mind. Our chef for the day, Alex Hong, has taken his food far from his cooking roots at his family table in Missouri to the Culinary Institute of America, and now his Michelin-starred dining room at Sorrel in San Francisco. Chef Alex will showcase the bountiful variety from Sonoma County’s many family farms alongside McEvoy estate olive oil for what we can promise will be an unforgettable meal.

We love this fourth generation family-run winemaking venture for many reasons. Its historic, cinematic barns for one. Its vineyard plots named after different members of the family for another. You may even see a hawk circling above the lush fields as we walk through the Home Ranch. Take in the beauty of their ruler-rows of vines and large, gnarled oak trees sprinkled amongst golden grasses. We’ll set the table at the edge of the vineyard, planted with grapes used for the wine in your glass. Jeff and Janet Olsson, good friends and neighbors from just down the road at Industrial Eats, will serve a dinner of creative, dramatically plated and globally inspired cuisine sure to delight the crowd.

Everett Family Farm feels a bit like a sanctuary from our hurried modern world, so it only seems appropriate to spend two nights here. Perhaps we’ll dine along the soothing stream in the shade of tall trees or in the abundant vegetable beds or in the fields near their picturesque red barn. Either way, we’ll feast on the fruits of farmers Rich and Laura’s loving labor. This time, we’ll have guest chefs Carlo Espinas and Emmanuel Galvan collaborating in the field kitchen. Carlo is well aquainted with the field kitchen. He went on tour with us in 2019 as our kitchen expeditor, helping our crew of guest chefs at nearly 100 events across the country. He also worked at some of the Bay Area’s best kitchens including Chez Panisse before opening The Lede in Oakland — an ingredient-driven restaurant celebrating the vast geography, history, and seasonality of California. Chef Emmanuel is the man behind Bolita Masa, a popular San Francisco pop-up selling fresh masa to local shops and restaurants. He uses landrace varieties of maize grown in Mexico and nixtimalizes the corn himself before grinding it with an electric-powered grinder fit with volcanic stones. If we’re lucky, he’ll bring along some of his salsa macha, a sweet and spicy salsa made with locally grown peanuts, seeds and chilies.

This vineyard at the top of the Santa Cruz Mountains overlooking the lights of Silicon Valley was first planted in the early 1900s by Burgundy native Paul Masson. (You may recognize that famous name!). Masson sold the property after prohibition to Peter’s dad, Martin Ray – a California legend who also planted the nearby vineyards that are now Mount Eden. Many of California’s modern Pinot Noir were planted with genetic material taken from this historic site. This is a rare opportunity to visit a very special place and taste the extremely limited-production wines made from the fruit that grows here. Guest chef Telmo Faria spent his childhood cooking at his father’s restaurant in the Portuguese islands, purchasing fresh fish and produce from seasonal stalls along the coast. Now he does the same at Uma Casa, crafting creative Portuguese menus sourced from the Bay Area’s wealth of local farms and fisheries. Our good friend Donnie Masterton will fly up from Mexico to join Telmo in the field kitchen for a very special meal to match some very special wine.

At this lush ranch in the rolling hills of California’s central coast, host vintner Jeff LeBard and his team tend to a variety of warmer-climate grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc and transform that fruit into some very lovely wines. After a reception at the historic barn, we’ll take a stroll around the property and settle into the table set in their sun-soaked vineyard or under the shade of the live oaks, depending on the weather. Then we’ll sip on a sampling of Gainey Family wines while guest chefs Jeff and Janet Olsson of Industrial Eats work their magic in the field kitchen. This husband-and-wife chef team has cooked for us several times over the years at many equally extraordinary sites. They’re also masters of the wood-burning oven and good friends with a slew of sustainable farms, foragers and fisherpeople across the Central Coast which they’ll source from for the menu.

One long table set between the vines surrounded by rolling golden hills and the pink light of early summer sun. A place like this deserves two nights. This plot of land in the eastern end of Santa Ynez Valley is ideal for growing warmer-climate grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc and host vintner Jeff LeBard and his team transform all that high-quality fruit into some very scrumptious wines in their on-site cellar. We’ll sample many varieties of their delicious wines alongside our meal from guest chefs Lauren and Christina Olufson. Lauren and Christina have quite the culinary chops between the two of them, including long tenures at Suzanne Goin’s a.o.c. and Luques in L.A. In 2019, the couple opened Bossie’s Kitchen in Santa Barbara in The Live Oak Dairy building, a Milpas Street landmark built in the last phase of Art Deco in the late 1930’s. At Bossies, they’re committed to sourcing local and organic ingredients from the abundance of area farms. This dynamic duo cooked for us earlier this year at Dos Pueblos Orchid Farm and we are thrilled to have them back in the field kitchen.

This vineyard and winery is the brainchild of host vintner Matthew Rorick and the result of his very hardworking team of vignerons, farmworkers and cellar hands. We feel quite lucky to dine among their 75 acres of organically grown grapes in the Sierra Foothills — where steep rows of vines are surrounded by thick woods and cascading hills gleaming under the California sun. The property’s limestone soils and 2,000 ft. elevation make for elegant, distinctive wines with deep aromatics, texture, and acidity. And low intervention winemaking without additives or commercial yeasts means the wines maintain their natural terroir. We’ll taste all those delicious wines alongside a Mediterranean meal from guest chef Kevin O’Connor. He’s a Sierra Foothills native passionate about hunting, foraging, and cooking outdoors. He’s also a self proclaimed olive oil geek and a certified olive oil sommelier. This is bound to be a fun one.

Napa wines have become some of the most hyped, celebrated, and sought after wines available and we have noticed that the wineries in the Valley seem to fall into two camps – the old guard and the new kids in town. While we aren’t going to make an argument here about which is better, we definitely admire and revere the history, longevity, and style of Mayacamas Winery. The vines at Mayacamas Winery cling to the side of Mt Veeder up to 2,400 feet above the valley floor, and this high elevation fruit offers depth, nuance, and intensity. It also makes for stupendous views from the table — acres of terraced vineyards, wildflower meadows, rugged mountains dotted with firs. On a clear day, you can see all the way to San Francisco. Couple all of that with a winemaking style that tips its hat to the old world and very limited production, and you have a wine so desirable that Mayacamas constantly sells out of current vintages. To say that we feel lucky to set our table at the top of all of this is an understatement. Luckier still is that Mayacamas is opening its vintage library to us for this occasion, so the wines we will be enjoying at the table will have some of their own history, and we can’t wait to see what story they tell us from the glass. Joining us from just on the other side of the hill, Sonoma’s the girl & the fig is the legendary restaurant we’ve chosen to work with for our feast between the vines. The restaurant is well-known for its award-winning wine list and a rotating seasonal menu featuring locally grown produce and wild-caught fish.