There is a room in Beaulieu Vineyard's restored Rutherford winery that used to be a barrel room. The designers kept its original ceiling, where cellar workers once scratched their signatures and played tic-tac-toe. "We've got signatures dating back to the early 1900s that were preserved," BV hospitality director Luke Magnini told the Napa Valley Register. "So guests are literally tasting history in their glass while looking up and being surrounded by it." That room is now called The Rarity Room. It opened to guests on July 13, less than three months after Robert Mondavi Winery reopened its Oakville estate a few miles south on Highway 29.
The mid-valley's two founding wineries came back the same year, and they came back built the same way. Each has put a kitchen and a table at the heart of the visit. Each has turned its history into rooms you can walk through. And each still prices its entry tasting below the $75 that a standard Napa Valley tasting averaged in 2023. If you're bringing guests, that changes which visit you book and how much of the afternoon you set aside.
At Mondavi, the Lawn Became a Garden and the New Wing Went to Food
Robert Mondavi Winery reopened to visitors on April 20 after a three-year closure. Longtime locals will notice the biggest change as soon as they pass under the arch. The manicured lawn in the middle of the property, where Mondavi hosted its summer concert series with names like Ella Fitzgerald and Sheryl Crow, has been replaced by a wild botanical garden of native and drought-resistant plants with walking paths through it. Lead architect David Darling of Aidlin Darling Design told the San Francisco Chronicle that before, "everyone was afraid to walk" on the lawn. The current events page lists no fall concert dates.
The largest new construction went to food. A covered outdoor lounge leads into a new wing built for culinary experiences, which picks up a thread Mondavi started decades ago with its Great Chefs program, when Julia Child and Alice Waters cooked at the winery. The main offering is The Mondavi Table, a family-style, three-course pairing for $95 per person. It runs 90 minutes, daily at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The winery calls the dishes seasonally inspired and doesn't publish a fixed menu. It also has no restaurant on site, so the Table is the meal.
The entry tasting tells the price story. The Pioneer Tasting is $60 for 60 minutes. Before the closure it was $45, according to the Chronicle's April 17, 2026 report. Tock adds an 18% hospitality fee, so the Pioneer comes to $70.80 per person at checkout. That is still under the 2023 valley average, but it's close. Above the Pioneer are the Legend Tasting and Tour, a Reserve tasting with a private guided tour for $150 over 90 minutes, and the To Kalon Collective Experience at $180 for two hours. The Collective pours Schrader, To Kalon Vineyard Company and Double Diamond alongside Robert Mondavi wines. From almost every part of the property, the view is of To Kalon Vineyard, the winery's 440-acre estate, which is now CCOF certified organic.
At BV, the First Kitchen Moved Into an 1885 Stone Building
Beaulieu Vineyard took the same idea and put it inside older walls. The two-year renovation turned BV's historic stone winery into a hospitality center with seven tasting spaces and the winery's first dedicated culinary program. Winery Chef Sam McKenzie leads the kitchen. BV says the program draws on archival menus and Madame de Latour's entertaining traditions, so the food is part of how the winery tells its history.
The rooms are built around that history too. Guests come in through a reception timeline into the Rutherford Atrium and the open-air 1885 Courtyard. From there they reach the Georges de Latour Private Reserve Wine Library and the Founders' Garage, which holds the Cadillac Georges de Latour drove to San Francisco in 1938 to pick up André Tchelistcheff when he arrived from France. Upstairs are André Tchelistcheff Hall, The Rarity Room, the members-only Maestro Lounge and the Madame de Latour Terrace. Signum Architecture designed the project, and San Francisco firm BAMO did the interiors.
BV's tasting menu climbs in steps, and food comes in at the second one. The 1885 Tasting is $50 for an hour in the original winery and ends with Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. The Heritage Tasting, $80 for 90 minutes, pairs wines with light seasonal bites inspired by afternoon tea. The Georges de Latour Table is a two-hour, multi-course pairing in the Library for $150. At the top, the Time Traveler Experience pours rare library wines, including Clone Collection, Georges de Latour Private Reserve and Rarity, with historically inspired shared bites for $300. Only six vintages of Rarity Cabernet Sauvignon have ever been released.
If you knew BV's south-end Reserve Tasting Room, it hosted its last guests on June 29, and everything moved into the restored building on July 13. No source so far describes a new use for the old room.
Matching the Guest to the Room
Since both wineries now offer an hour-long tasting, a seated meal and a deep-history option, it's easier to compare them side by side than to pick one winery for the whole day. Prices are per person as listed on the wineries' booking pages in October 2026. Mondavi's Tock listings show the 18% hospitality fee on top of these figures.
| What the guest wants | Robert Mondavi, Oakville | Beaulieu Vineyard, Rutherford |
|---|---|---|
| An hour before dinner | Pioneer Tasting, $60, 60 min | The 1885 Tasting, $50, 60 min |
| Lunch with the wine | The Mondavi Table, $95, 90 min | Heritage Tasting, $80, 90 min, or Georges de Latour Table, $150, 120 min |
| Time out in the vines | To Kalon Collective, $180, 120 min | A Walk with the Maestro, $95, 90 min, through Ranch No. 10 |
| Rare wines and a tour | Legend Tasting and Tour, $150, 90 min | The Time Traveler Experience, $300, 120 min |
The two table formats differ mainly in timing. Mondavi seats its Table at two fixed times, 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. BV's Heritage Tasting offers lighter food at a lower price, and its Georges de Latour Table is the longer, more formal sit-down. The cheapest food-led visit in either building is BV's Heritage Tasting at $80. For a pre-dinner stop with no food, BV's 1885 Tasting is the lower-priced hour on this stretch of Highway 29.
Booking Details Hosts Need
- Hours. Mondavi is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. BV is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the last reservation at 3:30 p.m.
- Walk-ins. Mondavi takes same-day reservations and walk-ins only when space allows, and says weekends often sell out in advance. BV recommends reservations, especially for its higher-end tastings, and may take walk-ins for some tastings.
- Age. Mondavi's FAQ says the estate is intended for guests 21 and older.
- Resident pricing. The Napa Valley Vintners' Napa Neighbor directory lists a BV offer for groups of up to four, Sunday through Friday: a 2-for-1 tasting with code NN24, 15% off three or more bottles and 20% off a case. BV's own booking page doesn't confirm the code, so ask when you reserve. Mondavi's Oakville visit pages list no Napa County resident offer. The $50 resident tasting some locals remember was at Arch & Tower, Mondavi's downtown Napa room, which a tourism listing said would close indefinitely in spring 2026.
- Large groups. BV handles custom tastings for groups of 15 or more by inquiry.
What Comes Next on This Stretch
The calendar between now and the holidays is mostly for club members. Mondavi's events page lists a Fall Club Harvest Celebration on Saturday, October 24, from 1 to 4 p.m. Each membership gets up to four complimentary tickets, and additional guest tickets start at $35. BV's events page shows no fall harvest event. Its next listing is the Annual Member Holiday Party in December.
Two nearby projects are moving in the same direction as the reopenings. St. Supéry, which Chanel owns, took over Rudd Estate at 500 Oakville Cross Road as of April 13 and said it will keep producing Rudd wines. Based on county transfer tax, the Napa Valley Register reported that the 65-acre property sold for $39.2 million. At Sullivan Rutherford Estate, 1090 Galleron Road, the roof was on the new production-and-hospitality building by September, and the first guests are expected in spring 2027.
Every one of these projects starts with the vineyard ground under it, from To Kalon to Ranch No. 10 to the Rudd parcel on Oakville Cross Road. That ground is what Jeff & Casey Bounsall study for a living, and our notes on site criteria for blue-chip Cabernet vineyards in Oakville and Rutherford and reading the area's soils maps go further into what makes it valuable. If you own land along this corridor and want a clear view of what it could become, Work With Us.
