Napa Valley Winery Far Niente’s New Luxury Food And Wine Experience With Chef Phillip Moratin

Located in the heart of idylic Oakville within Napa Valley is the historic Far Niente Wine Estate. World renowned for its expressions of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, this winery has set its sights on elevating its culinary program to match its esteemed wine collection.

Most recently Far Niente appointed Executive Chef Phillip Moratin, previously of Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, Morimoto and Angele Restaurant and Bar, to continue to build its culinary program and with it launch one of the Valley’s top hospitaity experiences. The winery’s new Library Tasting will present the best of their vintages, paired with a chef-curated pairing menu created by Chef Moratin, highlighting its exclusive Cave Collection Wines.

“Far Niente was an early pioneer in the Napa Valley with its culinary program and we continue to make food an important element of our tasting experiences,” explains Far Niente’s leading winemaker, Nicole Marchesi.

“With the Library Tasting, we wanted to develop a new experience that elevates our legacy of hospitality with a wine and food pairing menu created by our talented Executive Chef Phillip Moratin. Instead of matching the wines to food, Chef Phillip is taking the reverse approach pairing the food to the wines in order to highlight our exclusive Cave Collection Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays.”

The new Library Tasting will take guests on a multisensory experience as they explore Far Niente’s stunning estate and taste its award-winning wines. Guests first explore the property’s wine caves, before making their way to the historic winery for a curated food and wine pairing.

Example pairings include house cured duck prosciutto paired with 2014 Far Niente Cave Collection Cabernet Sauvignon; and the creme fraiche panna cotta with paddlefish caviar, hen eggs, shallots and chives with 2017 Far Niente Cave Collection Cabernet Sauvignon.

“Our goal with the Library Tasting is to take guests on a sensory journey as they sip and savor the best that Far Niente and the Napa Valley have to offer,” explains Chef Moratin. “We want our food and wine pairings to have a wow factor that leaves an indelible impression on them when they walk out the door.”

Chef Moratin is working directly with the Far Niente winemakers to learn as much about the wines and vintages as he can so he can carefully adjust each dish to find the ideal match for the wines, accentuating their unique flavors and character he explains.

“Far Niente’s winemaking team consistently produces such high-quality, food friendly wines each vintage,” he continues. “Instead of pairing the wines to the food I’ve reversed the order to let the wines be the heroes, highlighting the amazing amount of work that the team puts into crafting them. I am working directly with the winemakers to learn about the wines and vintages so I can carefully adjust each dish to find the ideal match for the wines, accentuating their unique flavors and character.”

We chatted with both Executive Chef Phillip Moratin and winemaker Nicole Marchesi on the new culinary experience, what’s in the pipeline, and what guests can expect from the wine and food pairing.

Talk about the inspiration behind the new culinary experience? How closely does Chef Philip and Nicole work to create the curated wine and food pairings?

Nicole Marchesi: From the beginning, we have prided ourselves on offering exceptional tasting experiences that focus on education and enjoyment, catering them to meet and exceed our guests’ and members’ expectations for excellence in the wine and culinary spaces. Each experience has been developed to showcase the very best that wine country has to offer from our historic Napa Valley estates to our winemaking and culinary programs.

Chef Moratin is working closely with me and the rest of the winemaking team, running each pairing by us and fine tuning his dishes to find the ideal match. He is crafting his food pairing to accentuate the wine’s flavors and showcase their character making them the hero.

Will the menu be seasonal? What will influence it?

Chef Phillip Moratin: We are so fortunate to be able to work in Napa Valley where we have access to such incredible produce from local farmers. My goal is to highlight the region’s bounty from its exceptional food to its world-renowned wines. The Library Tasting menu will feature a rotating selection of seasonally inspired dishes crafted using only the finest ingredients from our culinary garden along with products from select local purveyors.

I am working closely with Far Niente’s winemaking team to develop each dish to match the Cave Collection wines which are expertly aged in Far Niente’s wine caves. Working with older vintages gives me the opportunity to explore different pairing that showcase the cellaring potential of the wines and the nuances in flavor and character that comes with aging.

How has your trajectory and previous work experiences helped you launch this culinary program at Far Niente? What’s the difference between working a restaurant vs. a winery?

Chef Phillip Moratin: I have been working in Napa Valley’s fine dining scene for more than a decade starting at the former Etoile Restaurant at Domaine Chandon. That is where I first became fascinated with pairing food and wine when I tasted a Foie Gras Torchon served alongside a glass of Dolce, America’s leading late-harvest wine produced under Far Niente Wine Estates.

Over the years I have worked for some of Napa’s top restaurants including the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, Morimoto and was previously the Chef de Cuisine at Angele Restaurant and Bar in the city of Napa. Working in the Valley I always knew about Far Niente’s reputation for crafting world-class wines. But I was also impressed by its pioneering culinary program and history. I am excited to continue to build its program to highlight the bounty of Napa from its local produce to its wines.

What do you look forward to as you build more culinary experiences at the winery? What’s in the pipeline?

Chef Phillip Moratin: Hospitality is central to our core philosophy at Far Niente and it’s a vital element of all of our wine experiences, which have been designed to focus on education and enjoyment while providing a range of opportunities for different levels of wine engagement. We are dedicated to meeting our consumers no matter where they are in their wine journey, whether they are new to wine or an experienced enophile.

I am excited to continue to build the winery’s culinary program to highlight the Valley’s bounty from its local produce to its wi1nes. I am working closely with Far Niente’s Director of Hospitality, Elias Mandilaras, who is a fellow alum of the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, to continue to develop and expand the winery’s hospitality and culinary programs, crafting dishes to showcase Far Niente’s renowned wines, because in the end, the wines are the heroes.

When you’re making your wine, do you take in to consideration how it will pair with food?

Nicole Marchesi: Far Niente recognized early on the intrinsic link between great wine and food and has made gastronomy an important element of its tasting experiences and winemaking. From the beginning we set out to craft some of the finest wines in the world that are also very food friendly. We take the best that our vineyards offer us each vintage to craft the wines. The heart of our Far Niente Chardonnay comes from our vineyards in the Coombsville AVA and is made without malolactic fermentation, aiming for a “Signature style” that seamlessly balances grace, elegance, depth and length.

The Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the historic Martin Stelling Vineyard adjacent to the estate. The sloping terrain and gravelly well-draining soils of the Western Oakville bench are ideal for inducing just the right amount of vine stress, producing Cabernet grapes that are small and concentrated with flavor, color and tannin. From the variety of clones planted in our vineyards to the myriad techniques employed in the cellar, our consistent pursuit of excellence has enabled us to craft wine of distinction that can pair beautifully with a wide range of foods.