As we enter the midst of the busy holiday season, a corporate retreat may be on the horizon, if not now then in the coming year. But, transforming it into a delightful experience without the usual work stress is key.

Imagine bike tours, cooking classes, tastings, and hassle-free transport. These are essentials for a remarkable business journey disguised as a Wine Country tour. Below, we’ve curated our top selections for a corporate retreat in Napa Valley, offering the ideal opportunity to activate that ‘Out of Office’ notification.

Taste the Good Life in Napa Valley

For something outside the ordinary, explore A Wine & Dine Event. They have been providing exclusive itineraries for discerning corporate clients and luxury leisure travelers since 1990. The details are alluring, the seduction is rich, and the hospitality is cultured. Their unique services include private wine tours, one-of-a-kind special events and conference planning, superb team building, winery cave dinners, luxury lodging, and transportation logistics. Celebrate, explore, and rejuvenate in the Wine Country. Join them for a crash course in the good life.

Insider Tip: Think you’ve been there, done that in Napa? Think again! When was the last time you kayaked blindfolded racing to a wine tasting?

3240 Soda Canyon Road, Napa, CA 94558, (707) 963-8930

Explore Wine Country by Bike or Kayak

Have a corporate group on the adventurous side? Getaway Adventures is the perfect antidote! For groups large or small, Getaway Adventures specializes in creating the perfect team-building activity, including bike rides, kayak trips, and hiking adventures, along with scavenger hunts, wine blending, and more. It’s a great way for your group to bond while exploring the best of Wine Country.

Insider Tip: Getaway Adventures has been in business since 1991 and has excellent relationships with local wineries and hotels, plus all employees and guides are local to the area. Looking for tips? Just ask.

61 Front St, Healdsburg, CA 95448 (800) 499-2453

Hitch a Ride to Fantastic Wineries

Leaving your planning in the hands of MG Concierge means your winery dinners, tours, and transportation will be planned fully without any detail overlooked. Special tastings and tours are offered exclusively to MG Concierge clients and include Handwritten Wines, Frank Family Vineyards, Jessup Cellars, and many more.
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Insider Tip: Consider contacting MG Concierge before booking any accommodations. With local connections, they may be able to get an exclusive deal for you and your team.

1621 Pear Tree Lane, Napa, CA 94558, (707) 304-0721

Choose Your Own Adventure

Balloon rides, tours galore, AND transport to and from the airport make Beau Wine Tours something of a one-stop shop. For those in your group fresh to the Napa Valley scene, a two-day introductory tour that stops in your choice of Los Carneros or Oak Knoll plus Yountville, the Stags Leap District, and St Helena will appeal to visitors looking to dip their toes into the winemaking world. If your group is already well-versed in wines and wineries within this area, take the plunge with the Diamond Mountain District Wine Tours, immersing visitors in the making of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.

Insider Tip: In addition to wine preferences, let your driver know of your culinary preferences—they know most of the hot spots in the area and can find the right fit for you and your team.

Sonoma Location: 21707 8th Street E, Suite A, Sonoma, CA 95476, (707) 938-8001
Napa Location: 1754 Second Street, Suite B, Napa, CA 94559, (707) 257-0887

Team Build in Style

Making sure you have room to transport everyone around Napa Valley is essential for a company outing. Aside from providing quality charter services, including luxury limos and coaches, Napa Valley Tours & Transportation can also arrange the perfect team building activity, from helping you find the perfect location to planning and executing fun activities to boost morale. Whether it’s a cooking class, a wine tour, or a custom experience tailored to your company, you’ll rest easy knowing you and your business are in good hands.

Insider Tip: Have corporate members arriving from multiple locations? The company can also coordinate airport transfer services to ensure everyone arrives to their destinations on time.

190 Camina Oruga #17, Napa, CA 94558, (707) 339-1108

A Touch of Glamour in Wine Country

Limos and wine tours are one way to wow your employees, but for something super unique, consider a ride aboard the Napa Valley Wine Train. Not only is the Napa Valley Wine Train a fun way to explore the region, but it’s one of the most elegant ways to savor the wine and food of Wine Country–all without leaving the comforts of the train. Depending on the size of your group, you’ll even get your own private train car.

Insider Tip: The Napa Valley Wine Train can accommodate groups of any size, from four people at a private table to full buy-outs of the train for 300 people.

1275 McKinstry Street, Napa, CA 94559, (707) 253-2111

With 500 options in Napa Valley, many wineries find creative ways to stand out and lure in visitors. Some will invite you into their wine caves, for instance, while others might offer a cheese pairing, or even a multi-course wine and food experience. Pine Ridge Vineyards does all three.

Tucked away from the Silverado Trail in Napa Valley’s famous Stags Leap District — most known for putting Napa Valley wine on the world map in the 1976 Judgment of Paris — Pine Ridge Vineyards welcomes guests on two of the most informative and memorable wine tasting experiences in all of Northern California’s Wine Country. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience both of their elevated offerings: the Wine Tasting and Cave Tour (complete with a cheese pairing) and Savor Pine Ridge, which pairs five wines with gourmet bites. Both are fantastic and priced at a great value, so read on to decide which one is right for you.

The Tours

These Pine Ridge experiences begin with a welcome splash of wine and a tour of the estate vineyard, cellar, and caves. The Wine Tasting and Cave Tour is the most extensive, roughly 90 minutes and includes a barrel sample. The Savor tour is an abridged version, as there’s a greater focus on the food and wine pairing to come.

Starting in front of the estate vineyard, we learned about the soils, how Pine Ridge Vineyards has vines planted on some of the steepest slopes in the valley, the grape growing process, and the history of the winery dating back to 1978. We weren’t empty handed either, soaking in this knowledge while sipping a delightful chardonnay; it was a perfect balance between light and crisp and elegant and rich.

One main theme that stood out to me throughout both tours was technology. Winemaker Michael Beaulac clearly cares about not just maintaining the wine quality but also improving it. He and his team are on top of the latest and greatest advancements in the industry and are even running their own experiments to benefit the region as a whole.

In the vineyard, for example, vineyard manager Gustavo Avina, who has been with Pine Ridge Vineyards since 2003, has installed innovative, vineyard climate stations. These enable him to remotely control things like irrigation right from his smartphone. In the cellar, Pine Ridge Vineyards has imported some very expensive concrete fermenters from Italy, which kind of look like Apollo spacecrafts. Beaulac mentioned he’s still experimenting with them, but that they should add an extra freshness to the wine. I could go on and on, but I don’t want to give it all away.

The tours finish 130 feet underground in the 32,000-sq. ft. cave, home to 3,000 barrels and composed of just over three-quarters of a mile of tunnels (that’s pretty big for a wine cave). I’ve personally lost count of the wine caves I’ve seen all over the world, everything from damp, hand-dug caves built centuries ago to perfectly manicured ones covered in marble. Because of this, I’m not easily moved by what a winery has underground, but Pine Ridge Vineyards’ cool cave truly stuck out for the experience offered within it.

This isn’t the standard cave walk through; we actually got to stay awhile, sit down, and taste the wines. The sound of working forklifts in the background wasn’t so much distracting, as a cool and authentic addition to the experience.

The Good Stuff

Pine Ridge Vineyards is the definition of a Napa Cab House. Yes, they produce some other wines, like chardonnay and rosé, but cabernet is undeniably their signature grape.

The winemaking team produces single-appellation cabs from the best producing regions (AVAs) around Napa Valley: Stags Leap, Rutherford, Oakville, and Howell Mountain. All of the wines provide a unique opportunity to sip your way through Napa Valley, identify the differences in the varying terroirs, and then determine which AVA you fancy the most. My favorite AVA has consistently been Rutherford, known for its unique “Rutherford Dust” soil, which was reaffirmed during my Pine Ridge Vineyards visit.

The wine and cheese pairing occurs at an intimate round table in the cave, set in front of a gorgeous Chihuly glass sculpture. At my seat, there were three wine glasses and a plate with a trio of cheeses, dried fruits, and house-made, savory biscotti. For this tasting, we tried the Rutherford, Oakville, and Stags Leap cabs, each matched with a cheese.

When I’ve done cheese pairings before, more often than not, it’s with local cheeses. I’m all for supporting the local farmers, but I also really appreciate that Pine Ridge Vineyards prioritizes quality and choosing the perfect match to showcase their wines. They’ve carefully selected dynamite cheeses (two hard, one soft) from France, Spain, and Holland, and they were so delicious that I actually wrote down their names so I could attempt to seek them out later.

The cheese pairing is truly delightful, but if you want the ultimate, VIP experience, book Savor. It takes place in a chic and cozy cave lounge called Cellar 47 — the kind of place you’d hope to hide out in during an apocalypse; think, chic, colorful furniture and rugs, with multiple nooks for lounging and sipping — and we got to sip the full gamut of wines. One-by-one, we tasted through five cabernets: the four single-appellation cabs, plus FORTIS, the winery’s flagship cabernet made with the best grapes from the best blocks (it’s big and bold like its name suggests). Priced at $225 a bottle, it’s a real treat to taste this. Each wine was paired with a substantial, gourmet bite prepared by winery chef Susan Lassalette. The menu stays consistent, only changing up when a new vintage is released.

Despite what you might expect for cabernet pairings, just one of the pairings was beef. Lassalette gets creative with unconventional pairings, proving that wine and food pairing rules are made to be broken. My favorite bite was the savory, Parmesan panna cotta, though I ultimately felt that the best pairing of the day was the Niman Ranch beef empanada with a spicy pimento dolce. As for the rest of the bites, I’ll let you find out for yourself.

Just when we thought we were finished with Savor, we were given a bonus surprise: a pair of custom made chocolates for dessert.

The Wine Tasting and Cave Tour ($75) is offered daily at 10 AM and 2 PM. Savor Pine Ridge ($125 per person) is offered daily at 11 AM and 1 PM. Both experiences last roughly 90 minutes.