Sequoia Grove Winery: Cabernet, Food Pairings & a Relaxed Rutherford Experience
Napa Valley, California
Some Napa Valley tastings are primarily about the wine. Others are about the setting. At Sequoia Grove Winery in Rutherford, one of the highlights is how naturally the two come together with food.
Located along Highway 29 in the heart of Rutherford, Sequoia Grove offers a polished but relaxed tasting experience surrounded by vineyards and towering trees. We visited for one of the winery's food-and-wine experiences, which turned a traditional Napa tasting into something much closer to a leisurely lunch.
The Setting at Sequoia Grove
Sequoia Grove sits in Rutherford, one of Napa Valley's best-known Cabernet Sauvignon regions. Despite its convenient location along Highway 29, once you're on the property the experience feels removed from the traffic and activity of Napa's main road.
The vineyards provide a beautiful backdrop, particularly in the late afternoon when the sun drops toward the Mayacamas Mountains.
The property doesn't have the dramatic caves of Jarvis or the grand estate architecture of Far Niente. Its appeal is different: Sequoia Grove feels approachable, comfortable and very much connected to the vineyards around it.
That makes it particularly appealing if you want a serious Napa wine experience without an overly formal atmosphere.
Our Sequoia Grove Tasting Experience
We chose a tasting that paired Sequoia Grove wines with food, and this was the part of the visit that stood out most.
Rather than simply placing a cheese board alongside several wines, the food was designed to interact with the wines being poured. It made the tasting slower, more interesting and much more substantial than a standard flight.
Our tasting included wines from several Napa Valley vineyards and appellations, giving us an opportunity to compare how Cabernet Sauvignon changes depending on where the grapes are grown.
Among the wines were Cabernet Sauvignons from Morisoli Vineyard, Stagecoach Vineyard and Frediani Vineyard, along with Sequoia Grove's Rutherford Bench Reserve.
That comparison was one of our favorite aspects of the experience.
The Food Pairings
The food here deserves more than a passing mention.
Sequoia Grove's pairing experience demonstrated how much the perception of a wine can change when it's served alongside a thoughtfully prepared dish.
The dishes were beautifully presented but weren't so elaborate that they distracted from the wine. Instead, the food gave us another way to explore the Cabernet Sauvignon — particularly its fruit, tannin and savory characteristics.
This is one reason we'd recommend Sequoia Grove to someone who has already done several traditional Napa tastings. After a few wineries, flights of Cabernet can start to feel repetitive. Adding a culinary component makes the tasting feel like a completely different experience.
The Wines
Cabernet Sauvignon is the star at Sequoia Grove, but our visit also demonstrated that the winery isn't limited to a single style or vineyard.
During the tasting we were able to explore wines from different parts of Napa Valley, including Rutherford and Atlas Peak.
A separate Wines + Bites tasting offered wines including Napa Valley Merlot, Atlas Peak Syrah, Rutherford Bench Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and Stagecoach Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.
For wine travelers, tasting wines from several vineyard sites side-by-side is particularly interesting. Rather than simply deciding which bottle you like best, you can begin to notice the differences between Napa's warmer valley-floor vineyards and its higher-elevation sites.
More Than Just Cabernet
Although Cabernet Sauvignon gets much of the attention in Rutherford, Sequoia Grove also gives visitors opportunities to explore other varieties.
Depending on the tasting and current releases, that can include wines such as Chardonnay, Merlot and Syrah.
For us, however, the Cabernet-focused tasting was the reason to visit.
The opportunity to compare Cabernet Sauvignon from different Napa Valley vineyards while pairing the wines with food made the experience far more memorable than a conventional tasting flight.
Walking Through the Vineyards
One of the advantages of visiting Sequoia Grove is being able to step outside after the tasting and spend some time around the vineyards
More Napa Valley Winery Experiences
If you're planning a Napa Valley wine trip, continue with our first-hand winery guides:
Jarvis Estate Winery
An extraordinary underground winery and cave experience.
Far Niente Winery
Historic Napa Valley elegance, beautiful grounds, and classic Napa wines.
Nickel & Nickel
A deep dive into single-vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
An intimate, family-owned vineyard experience in Oak Knoll.
Faust Haus
A bold, contemporary approach to the Napa Cabernet experience.