Naples Winter Wine Festival 2027: Charlie Palmer, Chateau Latour's Frederic Engerer and the Biggest Charity Wine Auction in America, an Hour From Home

The biggest charity wine weekend in the country sits about an hour from my front door, and it runs January 29 to 31, 2027. The Naples Winter Wine Festival is back for its 27th year at The Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburon, and the scale of this thing still surprises me. Most festivals pour wine. Naples auctions off the kind of bottles most of us only read about, then hands the money to kids who need it.

The 2027 Chef de Cuisine is Charlie Palmer, and the chef roster around him runs deep: Cassidee Dabney, Rogelio Garcia, Cedric Vongerichten, Dustin Valette, Dean Fearing, and Nancy Oakes. The Honored Vintner is Frederic Engerer of Artemis Domaines, the group behind Chateau Latour. As a Certified Wine and Spirits Professional, a weekend built around Latour's own leadership is not a weekend I read about from the couch.

Most festivals pour wine. Naples auctions off the kind of bottles most of us only read about, then hands the money to kids who need it.

Moe Train

The weekend splits into two acts. Friday night belongs to the Vintner Dinners, where top chefs and vintners cook in private homes and landmark settings around Naples. Saturday moves to the Ritz-Carlton for the live auction, where rare lots hit the block in front of a tent full of people who came ready to spend. Ticket packages start at $17,500 per couple, and the money does real work: proceeds go to the Naples Children Foundation, which has helped 420,000 children in Collier County.

Great wine, serious chefs, and a cause that stays local. That's my kind of road trip.

Coverage plans include:

• Chef interviews with the visiting chefs cooking across the weekend
• Vintner Dinner coverage from the Friday night tables
• Live auction coverage on Saturday, paddle by paddle, plus daily recaps on Moe Train Eats