Itineraries
Monterey Wineries With Food: Three Weekend Itineraries for Foodies
6 min read
You came for the wine. You're staying for the vibe, views, conversation, and the food.
Across Monterey Wine Country, the line between tasting room and kitchen has all but disappeared. A winery with food is no longer the exception here. It's the plan. Charcuterie boards built by the local creamery. Live-fire paella turned tableside. Bowls and mezze platters with a vineyard view. Food trucks that turn a Saturday pour into a whole afternoon.
Santa Lucia Highlands fruit is the thread running through all of it. A few of these wine trails are built for foodies, and we've organized each one the way you'd actually plan a day around it: where to graze, where to make a meal of it, and which stops fire up the grills and food trucks on select days.
Itinerary 1: Carmel Valley
Carmel Valley is perhaps the easiest trail to plan as a Monterey winery foodies day. You're working with two clusters: the walkable tasting rooms of Carmel Valley Village up the road, and the Crossroads shopping center near Highway 1. Build the day around one good meal and graze around it.
Good for Grazing
Start in Carmel Valley Village, where four wineries pour alongside charcuterie with room to settle in. Corral Wine Company is the one to linger at: a hidden garden patio with lounge seating, a fire pit, and a children's play area, shaded and stocked with blankets for when the wind picks up. A few doors away, Scratch Wines pairs a stylish, maximalist lounge with a patio around back for groups who want open-air vibes; winemaker Sabrine Rodems also makes the wines at Wrath, which also has wine tasting rooms on the River Road trail and Carmel-by-the-Sean. McIntyre Family Wines keeps a sunny, dog-friendly patio in the heart of Carmel Valley, indoors or out. And Bernardus pours flights with a cheese-and-charcuterie plate on a newly renovated patio with outdoor living room vibes, shaded by some of the three hundred-plus oaks on the property, with dogs welcome on the grounds.
Near Highway 1, Crossroads Carmel is worth a pull-over for charcuterie snack boards at Taste Morgan, with a wide range of delicious varietals and indoor and patio seating.
Inside tip: Corral Wine Co. sources charcuterie and cheese boards from Carmel Valley Creamery, a micro-creamery and épicerie in the Village where you can watch cheese being made through the observation window, then pick up pastries, coffee, and everything you need for a picnic.
Make a Meal of It
Folktale Winery is where grazing becomes a full meal. The Folktale kitchen runs a farm-to-table menu of sharing boards, bowls, salads, and mezze platters — from a Mediterranean Bowl to a Caprese Salad to a Chicken Buddha Bowl — plus flatbread pizzas worth ordering. The Wine Garden reopens this summer after a remodel; until then, the outdoor tasting spaces overlook the vineyard, with live music most weekends, fire pits, and a provisions shop stocked with bites and merch. Family- and dog-friendly, and easy to sink into for a few hours.
A few minutes down Carmel Valley Road, Earthbound Farm Stand rewards the wander. Past the garden shed and plant nursery, picnic tables wait alongside a cut-your-own herb garden and a kids' garden. It's a full organic grocery and café with picnic provisions, local beer and wine, soft serve, and a sandwich menu deep enough to settle any group: paninis, a quinoa bowl, the wheelbarrow cheeseburger, a proper BLT, and a kids' menu.
Worth a Detour for the Sweet Tooth
After a tasting at Taste Morgan at the Crossroads — the patio is heated, pet-friendly, and has live music on summer Saturdays — follow it with chocolate. Lula's Chocolates is right there in the center, hand-dipping small batches from recipes Scott Lund learned from his grandmother Lula; the truffles and toffees are divine but don’t miss the sea salt caramels. Or cut over to the nearby Barnyard for Pieces of Heaven, where you can watch candy made by hand from premium chocolate and pure creamery butter.
Itinerary 2: River Road and the Salinas Valley
This is the gateway trail — tasting rooms strung along the valley floor with the Santa Lucia Highlands rising in full view above you. It's also the best trail for eating outdoors.
Good for Grazing
Odonata Wines pours charcuterie and cheese boards and keeps a cooler stocked with picnic provisions: olive-oil-marinated sheep's-milk cheese, cured meats, and olives. Wrath Wines sets up charcuterie boards on a patio overlooking their pond, with the Highlands framed on the ridgeline above. CRŪ Winery sells picnic provisions including local salumi and builds charcuterie boards on request, served on back-porch tables over the vineyard, with a fire pit just steps from the vines. South in Greenfield, Scheid spreads out on a roomy patio with local craft lamb salami, jams made from their own wine grapes — including a Cabernet Sauvignon jam — and grazing boards of Monterey County cheeses, meats, and crackers.
Food Trucks on Select Days
Odonata regularly hosts food trucks, so follow them on Instagram for the lineup. Rustique runs a full social calendar every month — comedy nights, date nights, local maker markets — and many of those events bring food trucks along.
Make a Meal of It
Pessagno Winery is the one to plan around. This tiny producer is run by sisters Carli Seaver and Teresa Franscioni, crafting a Rosé of Pinot Noir and crisp Chardonnays. On summer live-music days you'll often find a friend or family member presiding over a giant wood-fired paella pan or a live-fire grill turning local Zio's Sausages for guests. It isn’t high-tech, and that’s the fun. Call ahead to find out when they’re firing up the grill.
Beyond the Tasting Room
The farms here are part of the meal. Evan Oaks at Agventure Tours leads farm-to-table experiences through the Salinas Valley, combining agricultural tours with wine tasting in a way that reframes the word “pairing.” The Farm in Salinas, open May through October, offers tours, events, and farm-stand goods just five minutes off the trail and about ten minutes from Odonata Wines. And keep an eye out for the windmill: Windmill Market is more than a roadside grocery, stocked with artisan bread, olive oil, organic farmstead cheese, olives, Italian salami, and local wine — with artisan pizza pop-ups on select days.
Itinerary 3: Carmel-by-the-Sea
The coastal trail is the walkable one — a town built for grazing between tasting rooms. Leave the car, wear comfortable shoes, and plan to end up somewhere unexpected.
Light Bites and Small Plates
Scheid’s Carmel-by-the-Sea tasting room offers a curated selection of small bites available for purchase during your tasting. Confirm current food offerings with the winery before your visit, as the menu varies seasonally.
Pizza and Snack Plates
Dawn’s Dream serves pizza on Fridays, and club members receive a snack plate every day. It’s an easy anchor for an afternoon on foot — pour a glass, order a slice, and let the afternoon find its own pace.
Time Your Visit for Carmel Culinary Week
During Carmel Culinary Week in June, tasting rooms team up with local chefs and restaurants for a lineup of off-menu eats and drinks you won’t find the rest of the year. If your trip is flexible, build it around these dates.
Sweet Stops Worth the Hunt
Swing by Carmel Honey Company for local honey tastings. Then track down The Xocolatl Garden, hidden down an alley off Dolores. It takes a little looking — which is exactly the point.
Plan Your Route
Three trails, one common thread: here, the food is built around the wine instead of bolted on at the end.
Carmel Valley is the most self-contained — a full day from Village to Crossroads to Barnyard without touching a freeway. River Road rewards the planner: call Pessagno ahead of time, build in a farm stop, and give yourself an extra hour for the Windmill Market pull-over. Carmel-by-the-Sea is the easiest physically — park once, walk everywhere — but layer it with Carmel Culinary Week if you can.
However you route it, graze your way through it. The Santa Lucia Highlands will handle the rest.
