Wine country jaunt: Napa Truffle Festival in January

If, like me, you haven’t cottoned to the fact that it’s the latter half of November, and that December starts in just over a week, listen up. If you’re planning on a wine country trip in January, the Napa Truffle Festival is coming up Jan. 18 to 21, the third such event. The festival celebrates Tuber melanosporum, the winter Périgord black truffle (not to be confused with the much less pungent and pricy summer truffle).

Food writer and editor Colman Andrews will be speaking. There will be grower seminars and truffle lunches at Silver Oak and Beringer wineries, a wild mushroom foraging expedition. And a truffle (and of course, wine) dinner at La Toque in Napa prepared by Nicola Chessa of Valentino, chef-owner Ken Frank of La Toque, Michael Tusk of Quince in San Francisco and Marco Gubbiotti of La Bastiglia in Umbria, Italy.

For the full program, click here. The festival concludes that Monday with a walk-around wine tasting showcasing local food artisans at Oxbow Public Market in Napa.

Tickets are available now, from $25 to attend that wine tasting event and marketplace, $40 for a wild mushroom forage, $395 for the grand truffle and wine dinner, on up to $1,250 for the entire weekend package (which does not include accommodations). In any case, reserve both room and event ahead. Nobody ever said truffles were cheap.

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