When Flavor! Napa Valley was announced in April, there were two small hitches. First, the news did not include the line up of exactly what the four-day food and wine festival would include when it took place Nov. 17-20 at the Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa and the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena. As its first year in existence, specifics were still being hammered out.

Second, tickets weren’t available, since prices and sales arrangements hadn’t been set up yet.

Yet it was understandable that its organizers were eager to spread the word about the ambitious project, just the latest in an array of opportunities to celebrate how the North Bay has developed into the food and wine capital of the west.

Now, tickets have finally gone on sale, with more detail released about what those tickets will buy you.

First off, Flavor! is a significant undertaking, with some truly big name chefs involved, who, along with partnering vintners and sommeliers, will preside over dinners, seminars and tastings.

Events include up-close and personal cooking classes and demonstrations with celebrity chefs Michael Chiarello of Bottega, Thomas Keller of the French Laundry, and Christopher Kostow from the Restaurant at Meadowood. A highlight will be the once-in-a-lifetime gala dinner prepared by Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto of Morimoto Napa, with CIA alum and Food Network personality Scott Conant from Scarpetta restaurants in NY, Miami, Beverly Hills, Toronto, and Las Vegas; Jeffrey Jake from Silverado Resort and Spa; and Cindy Pawlcyn of Napa Valley’s Mustards Grill, Go Fish and Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen.

For an ultimate wine and food pairing, the Napa Valley Appellation Trail Tasting will feature more than 120 wineries from Carneros to Calistoga pouring their best examples from the individual appellations, paired with dishes created by the Valley’s most sought-after chefs including Tyler Florence of Rotisserie and Wine, Ken Frank of La Toque, Brandon Sharp of Solbar at Solage, Robert Curry from Auberge du Soleil, Bob Hurley of Hurley’s Restaurant, Curtis DiFede and Tyler Rodde of Oenotri, and Stephen Barber from Farmstead.

For more on the wine side, master sommeliers and wine experts such as Karen MacNeil, Andrea Robinson, Fred Dame and FOOD & WINE’s Executive Wine Editor Ray Isle will lead guided tastings through some of the Valley’s most iconic wines. To cap it off, a curated wine dinner will showcase many of the Napa Valley’s most prominent winemakers in food pairings at the “Dinner with the Napa Valley Winemakers.”

As a finale, a Terroir-to-Table Brunch hosted by Steve Carlin, a master of the eat-local movement and founder and managing partner of Downtown Napa’s Oxbow Public Market, will celebrate the heroes of the area’s food scene – the growers and artisanal producers who supply the Valley’s restaurants with their organic and sustainable raw ingredients. Chef Todd Humphries of Kitchen Door at Oxbow Public Market will lead a talented lineup of chefs to create a menu based on the country-lane freshness of the Napa Valley.

Individual event tickets range from $95 To $250, with most events ticketed at the $95 level. Special Flavor! Napa Valley festival packages are available at $475 and $750.

And it’s all for a good culinary cause: to support programs and scholarships at the CIA’s Greystone Campus.

Details: flavornapavalley.com.

Tip: Plan your four-day excursion into food and wine and worry not about a designated driver. Pure Luxury Transportation offers convenient Town Car and limo service, or, for larger groups, can provide a private chartered shuttle.

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For kids, a great camp is often the highlight of summer. So, figured Ramekins Culinary School owners Sarah and Darius Anderson, why not offer an equivalent adventure for adults? Except in this case, their Sonoma camp may be the highlight of a lifetime.

Wine Country Cuisine Camp begins next Monday, running June 27 to July 1, followed by a Wine Harvest Camp slated for October 17 to 21. But don’t expect sleeping bags and dining hall chow. For both, “deluxe” is an understatement.

First, the accommodations. For five days, campers rough it at Ramekins’ private Inn and spa, a rustic rammed earth, French-style chateau of six guest rooms just off historic Sonoma Square in the heart of the downtown corridor of boutiques, restaurants and wine tasting rooms. “Campfire” cooking in the Inn’s Courtyard means a wood-burning pizza oven, an outdoor fireplace, a fully stocked bar, lush wisteria vines and flower beds.

Through the Cuisine Camp week, activities feature culinary instruction from guest chefs, wine education from noted professionals, and trips to local wineries and sustainable farms.

Classes take place in two state-of-the-art cooking classrooms, limited to just ten students and showcasing locally sourced ingredients for classes in French sauces, cheese making, pastry, bread baking, meat preparation and a variety of cooking methods.

Winery trips with tastings and seminars are planned for Hanzell Vineyards, Cline Cellars, Jacuzzi Family Vineyards and Scribe Winery, offering an insider’s look at grape harvesting, wine production, tasting and food pairing.

Spa treatments are included, and when guests depart, they will bring with them a custom recipe book, personalized chef’s coat, and a professional knife.

The headliner, however, is a private dinner at chef Thomas Keller’s French Laundry, on Wednesday evening following a special tour of the legendary Napa Valley winery Opus One.

For the October Wine Harvest Camp, the package features much of the above, plus a Library Dinner at Hanzell Vineyards.

Not surprisingly, cost for these camps isn’t a typical tent-and-s’mores tariff. Enrollment is $4,000 per person single occupancy and $3,635 per person for double occupancy.

Details: Ramekins Culinary School & Inn, 450 West Spain St., Sonoma, 707-933-0450, ramekins.com.

Tip: Ramekins and Pure Luxury Transportation coordinate many events together. Be sure to ask about special packages on limos and Town Cars for your camping getaway.

Welcome to Oxbow

Nearly three years later, the votes are in. With the recent debut of a new restaurant and two more restaurants coming soon, the main Market Hall at Oxbow Public Market is fully leased. It’s quite an accomplishment for a 40,000 square foot, $10 million glass and brick barn-style destination that arrived in the middle of a recession.

C Casa in Action

At C Casa Innovative Taqueria, opened in May, the line-up features freshly made tacos, salads, small plates and rotisserie chicken, assembled by owner Catherine Bergen (previously known for her Made in Napa Valley gourmet food brand). The shop, which sits on the east side of the Market, offers indoor and outdoor seating facing the site formerly occupied by Copia.

In a contemporary take on classics, dishes include ‘unique tacos’ such as the grilled garlic citrus prawns with corn relish, avocado tomatillo salsa and cilantro and ‘small plates’ like corn edamame salad with zucchini, red bell peppers, cotija cheese and Meyer lemon olive oil. Everything is made on-site from scratch, including house made white corn tortillas and chips, accented in upscale touches like micro-greens.

Catherine Bergen with chefs Erasto and Pablo Jacinto

While recipes change with the seasons, there is a theme of unexpected spark, delivered by chefs and brothers Erasto and Pablo Jacinto, who for many years worked with celebrated chef Cindy Pawlcyn. Grilled mahi mahi tacos are plump with avocado, broccoli cabbage, salsa picante and oranges, for example, while black beans are spiked with spicy chorizo and a flurry of goat cheese.

C Casa's Terrific Tres Tacos

It’s the perfect combination, meanwhile, at Ca’ Momi’s Enoteca, showcasing classic Italian pizza, pastries, and regional wines.

Scheduled to open later this summer, the café comes from owners Dario De Conti, Valentina Guolo-Migotto and Stefano Migotto. The trio is best known for their winemaking at Napa’s Ca’ Momi Winery, and those quaffs will take center stage on the menu. Yet there also will be wine “discoveries” from smaller regions and producers all across Italy.

“We will bring in wines from our friends around Italy, always looking for something different and interesting – something that we think captures the spirit of Italian life,” says De Conti.

For food, expect authentic nibbles, such as classic Neapolitan pizzas crafted in a wood burning oven, plus tramezzini (small tea-style sandwiches), and a pasticceria sending out crostate (tarts) and crostatine di frutta (fruit pies), baci di dama (cookies), tiramisu and biscotti.

The Ca’ Momi story, by the way, is pretty delicious, too. The name pays tribute to Momi dea Bionda, a Napa Valley character who was famous for his obsession with the house, his grapes and his wine. In his later years he liked to patrol his property in an old motorcycle, armed with a rifle, and with his blind dog riding in the sidecar.

When Graham’s Take-Away Foods opens later this summer, diners will find “locally sourced prepared foods coupled with convenience.” That’s a mouthful, but it translates to gourmet grab-and-go for breakfast, lunch and dinner, prepared by real chefs. Owners Graham and Andrea Zanow are graduates of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and chef Graham worked at the French Laundry.

Farm Fresh at Oxbow

Start the day with individual loaf cakes, French bistro-style quiches, fresh fruit salads and just squeezed juices, along with yogurt parfaits layered with Clover yogurt, house made granola, seasonal fruit and Katz & Company preserves.

At lunch, you can tuck into a Rocky Jr. curry chicken wrap, a Mediterranean tuna salad pita or a Diestel turkey sandwich on foccacia with smoked mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes and basil mayo. For vegetarians, daily specials may include Greek mezze platter, Caprese wrap on a tomato tortilla or a truffle and herb egg salad sandwich on brioche. The line-up also includes a selection from 50 different pasta, potato, veggie and grain salads.

For dinner, packaged ready to heat-and-eat comfort foods are the order of the day, including organic meatloaf with Boursin whipped potatoes and glazed rainbow carrots or classic roasted chicken with herbes de Provence roasted vegetables and pan gravy.

Details: Oxbow Public Market, 610 & 644 First Street, Napa, 707-226-6529, oxbowpublicmarket.com. C Casa, 707-226-7700, myccasa.com.

Tip: Oxbow is right in the heart of Napa wine country, chock-a-block with wineries ripe for the visiting. Plan a day of divine eating and drinking, with Pure Luxury as your personal chauffeur.

Of course, Japanese tycoon Kenzo Tsujimoto had grander ideas than just sack lunches for his new Napa winery, which he finally opened May 1 after 20 years of planning and construction. And the chairman and founder of Japan’s Capcom Co. video game giant has accomplished that, with some 120,000 grape vines planted on the 4,000-acre Mount George estate in the east Napa Valley.

Kenzo Tsujimoto presents his wines

His Kenzo Estate, including 70 acres of vineyards originally planted in 1998 then torn out and replanted in 2002, has already produced its first wines, snapped up by buyers like Koju, a Michelin three-star restaurant in Tokyo’s high-end Ginza shopping district. The wines are available only in limited quantities at the tasting room, for winery club members, and at a select few California restaurants, such as the French Laundry and Bouchon restaurants in Yountville and Beverly Hills.

For the visitor to the by appointment only, gated property, there are 20,000 square feet of wine caves to explore, and a lovely tasting room designed in California barn style of modern earth tones, surrounded by 150-year-old olive trees.

Kenzo Estate vineyards

Yet this being Napa, land of jaw-dropping wineries, it takes even more to wow worldly tasters, and for that, Tsujimoto is showcasing lunch. The creator of the Street Fighter and Resident Evil video games has teamed with French Laundry celebrity chef Thomas Keller for pairings including a cheese plate or a full sit-down meal.

Kenzo Tsujimoto perches on concrete fermenter

Tastings don’t come cheap – Kenzo Estate’s signature wine is called Rindo — a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot —and sells for $75 a bottle. Other wines include Asatsuyu Sauvignon Blanc ($60), Murasaki Cabernet-based blend ($150) and Ai Cabernet Sauvignon ($150).

Kenzo wines

For, $30 you can get four one-ounce pours, while $50 gets you four two-ounce pours paired with a Bouchon selection of artisan cheeses, dried fruits, wildflower honey, candied walnuts and cranberry walnut bread.

For $60, you can add lunch, a casual affair where you sit inside or on the patio overlooking the park-like grounds and tuck into a gourmet sandwich. Add full glasses of your favorite wine for $14-$35.

So what will you be eating? Keller creations include a hearty beef brisket on pretzel brioche with horseradish-Dijon aioli, red mustard greens, fontina, house pickles and pickled red onions; a tuna Nicoise on paladin bread; or French Madrange ham and tangy gruyere on a baguette.

You can also get lighter bites of charcuterie, like an assiette of Saucisson Sec Basquese salami, gentile pork salami, and rosette de Lyon French pork sausage with pickled garden vegetables, Edmond Fallot mustard and epi baguette; or rillettes of fresh and smoked salmon atop toasted croutons.

Kenzo Estate views

Finish up with a tarte au citron ($11.50), chocolate bouchons ($10), macarons ($12), and a cup of Bouchon Blend Equator Coffee ($3).

Living large? We’ll toast to that.

Details: Kenzo Estate, 3200 Monticello Road, Napa, 707-259-5408, kenzoestate.com. Open for tastings by appointment only seven days a week from 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Let them know if you want the sandwich lunch when making your reservation.

Tip: Take the long and winding road up the mountain in style and comfort, with a Pure Luxury limousine or Town Car!