If you love Napa Cabernet, you’re going to want to pay attention. Opportunities for consumers to taste large quantities of Napa wines don’t come around all that often. Opportunities to taste some of Napa’s most sought-after, expensive, and hard-to-find wines are even more rare.
But that’s precisely what you’ll have the chance to do at the annual Taste of Oakville Grand Tasting. Now, as a member of the media, I have been attending Taste of Oakville for years. It’s a trade and media tasting put on by the Oakville Winegrowers Association that is not open to the general public and is generally so popular with the trade and media that it fills to capacity months in advance.
One of the reasons for its popularity has to do with the fact that this annual tasting is certainly the only opportunity that most people (even in the trade) get to taste the latest vintage of Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle, Futo, Harlan Estate, Opus One, Schrader, TOR, Peter Michael, Maybach, and many other top Napa Cabernets. It looks like Screaming Eagle and Dalla Valle won’t be on offer at the public version of this tasting, but the rest of those names will, along with many others.
The tickets are merely $250 a pop. And when I say merely, I mean that, given the prices of some of these wines, after tasting only about 10 wines, you will have put your money’s worth in your mouth. Whether you swallow is up to you (but please don’t drink and drive).
The event will take place on Sunday, June 14th, at the newly remodeled Robert Mondavi Winery and will feature a walk-around tasting and small bites to eat as you enjoy some of the finest Cabernets (and other wines) that Napa Valley has to offer.
The wineries currently scheduled to pour at this event include: B Cellars, Detert Family Vineyards, Ehrlich Vineyard, Fait-Main, Far Niente, Favia, FUTO Estate, Gamble Estates, Gargiulo Vineyards, Ghost Block Estate, Goldschmidt Vineyards, Groth Vineyards & Winery, Harlan Estate, Harbison Estate, Heitz Cellar, Kelleher Family Vineyard, Martha’s Vineyard, Maybach Wines, Miner Family Winery, Morlet Family Vineyards, Nemerever Vineyards, Nickel & Nickel, O’Shaughnessy Estate, Oakville Ranch, Opus One, Paradigm Winery, Patria, Peter Michael Winery, PlumpJack Winery, Raymond Winery, Robert Mondavi Winery, Rudd Estate, Saddleback Cellars, Schrader Cellars, Spoto Family Wines, Tamber Bey, Teaderman Vineyards, Tench Estate, Tierra Roja, To Kalon Vineyard Co., TOR Wines, Turnbull Wine Cellars, Ulysses, Villa Ragazzi, Vine Cliff 1871, VHR, Vine Hill Ranch, Zeitgeist Cellars
If you’re a Napa wine lover, this is one tasting you don’t want to miss.
2026 Taste of Oakville Grand Tasting
Sunday, June 14th, 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Robert Mondavi Winery
7801 St. Helena Highway
Napa, CA 94558 (map)
Tickets, which will run you $250 for the tasting, must be purchased in advance online. You can also opt for the “Oakville Bundle” which includes either a magnum or two regular-size bottles of Oakville Cuvee, two tickets to the tasting, and a complimentary wine tasting at Turnbull Cellars for $1075.00. Purchase tickets online here.
