Situated on an 80-acre property in St. Helena with close ties to the luxury resort Meadowood that Bill Harlan established in 1979, The Napa Valley Reserve is a members-only winery and vineyard project founded in 2004. It’s described as the “nation’s first wine country club” and “the wine world’s most elite fantasy camp.”

Though wine clubs have become common in many American cities and suburbs, the 80-acre Reserve is in a league all its own. Its grapes come from rootstocks and clones of Harlan Estate, and its 244 members can cook with author Patricia Wells and confer

17with superstar Bordeaux oenologist Michael Rolland. A resident historian quotes Thucydides and another ancient Greeks.

And the wines: “unreal,” “ethereal,” “massive,” and quite simply marvelous.