Napa WinoField guide · The calendar
Events Worth Planning Around
Every guide in the valley lists every event. Most aren't worth rearranging a holiday for. Here's the full calendar with our read on which ones are.
Now — September and October 2026
Harvest. The whole valley, through late October. It started early and the crop is small, so Cabernet is coming in during September rather than October. Detail in the Harvest 2026 guide.
V. Sattui Harvest Ball — 19 September, evening, St. Helena. The 40th, and V. Sattui's 50th year in the valley. $350–$395. A big unpretentious party rather than a sit-down wine dinner, which is either exactly what you want or exactly what you don't.
Rutherford Hill Fall Harvest Party — 3 October. Tastings and harvest food at the cave winery. Smaller and easier than the Ball.
Collective Napa Valley Fall Offering — 11 October. The successor to Auction Napa Valley, which ended in 2019. Worth knowing if you've been searching the old name and finding nothing.
Holidays — November and December
Holidays in Yountville — late November through New Year's Day. Tree lighting, tastings, crafts. Yountville is walkable, which matters more in December than in July.
Calistoga's lighted tractor parade — November. Genuinely local, genuinely odd, and the best argument for a Calistoga night in the off-season. Farm equipment, strung with lights, down Lincoln Avenue.
Napa Valley Wine Trolley holiday lights tours — December, 90 minutes through downtown Napa. Good with children, thin without them.
Winter — the valley's best value
The season most visitors skip and the one we'd argue for hardest. Tasting rooms are quiet, restaurants are reservable, and the winemakers have time to talk.
Collective Napa Valley Winter Offering — 14–17 January 2027. Wineries and chefs, four days.
Napa Lighted Art Festival — 16 January to 14 February 2027. Fifteen light installations across downtown Napa, free, walkable, five weeks. Projection work on three downtown buildings for the first nine nights only, so the opening stretch is the one to catch. The strongest free event in the valley and almost unknown outside Napa County.
Winter in the Wineries Passport — December through February, Calistoga. One passport, complimentary tastings at more than a dozen wineries. The best-value thing in Napa, full stop.
Napa Valley Restaurant Week — January. Multi-course menus at set prices across the valley.
Spring and summer 2027
BottleRock Napa Valley — expected 28–30 May 2027, Napa Valley Expo, Memorial Day weekend. Lineup unannounced at the time of writing. BottleRock fills every hotel room in the county and pushes rates hard; if you're coming for wine rather than music, avoid that weekend.
Festival Napa Valley — July. Classical performance, opera, ballet, and the Taste of Napa grand tasting. The 2026 edition ran 4–19 July for its 20th anniversary.
Music in the Vineyards — August. Chamber music in winery settings. Small, and the tickets go quietly.
Live music & seasonal dinners
Named acts at Napa Music Hall and the Uptown Theatre, plus the harvest dinners worth booking this season, live on their own page — refreshed weekly since both calendars change constantly.
See who's playing and what's cooking →
Every week
Calistoga Farmers Market — Saturdays, 9am to 1pm, Washington Street. Produce, flowers, olive oil, breakfast. A good first hour of a Calistoga day before the tasting rooms open.
Two honest notes
Auction Napa Valley no longer exists. It ended after 2019 and Collective Napa Valley took its place with a different format and calendar. Plenty of pages still list it. Don't plan around it.
The Napa Valley Film Festival has been postponed and hasn't reliably returned. Treat any listing with suspicion until the organisers confirm.
Dates confirmed against the City of Napa, Collective Napa Valley and Napa Valley Vintners. BottleRock 2027 dates are expected, not officially announced.