New luxury resort, private wine club coming to Calistoga in 2027. Summary. Calistoga is seeing two hospitality investments: Rosewood's 118-acre resort, with 65 guestrooms, 30 suites and 20 villas, is accepting reservations for stays beginning April 15, 2027. Separately, Calistoga Farms is redeveloping the fire-damaged former Fairwinds Estate Winery as a private wine club and winery, which is expected to open in spring 2027. Natalie Hanson, The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, Calif. The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, Calif. The Calistoga area is seeing new investment in the tourism and hospitality industry as two separate projects - a new private wine club and luxury resort - are underway in the Napa Valley. Joining the growing number of high-end Napa Valley properties, Rosewood Hotels on Nov. 4 announced its new luxury resort is taking reservations for stays starting April 15, 2027. The luxury hotel company, which owns 43 properties, announced its new resort will be located on 118 acres of forested ridgeline above Calistoga, with 65 guestrooms, 30 suites, and 20 private villas. The project sits at 515 Foothill Boulevard at the northern end of Napa Valley. It will include three restaurant and bar sites and a cellar program which the company says will be "built around Napa Valley winemakers." "Napa Valley is often defined by wine, but Calistoga has always had a character all its own: a place shaped by forested ridgeline and a close-knit community of growers and makers," said Daniel Simon, managing director at Rosewood Calistoga, in a statement. "Here, the land is both backdrop and guide, and every part of the stay draws on the people and seasons around us, from our gardens to Asaya Spa and the craftspeople that guests will learn from directly." The company said it was inspired by the vision of late architect Ed Tuttle to create the Atelier Marsh. The resort offers guestrooms designed with natural oak, deep green stone and leather accents and suites feature private terraces among the trees. The resort also touts its use of firepits, lounge seating and outdoor dining areas, alongside indoor-outdoor showers. The resort also offers the new Asaya Spa, with different therapies offered across six treatment rooms. Guests will also have access to two vineyard-view pools and more than 12,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space. Rosewood Calistoga will compete with nearby properties like Four Seasons, Auberge du Soleil and Stanly Ranch. More taking shape in Calistoga Months after purchasing a Calistoga winery which was severely damaged in the 2020 Glass Fire for nearly $13 million, Calistoga Farms LLC says its plans for a new winery and club are taking shape. The former Fairwinds Estate Winery at 4550 Silverado Trail - which suffered heavy damage during the 2020 Glass Fire and was previously involved in disputes over insurance claims - is being redeveloped into a private members-only grape-growing estate called The Calistoga Club. Fairwinds Estate Winery in August sold for an estimated $12.8 million, as first reported by The Napa Valley Register. Fairwinds Estate Winery LLC sold to Calistoga Farms LLC, managed by vintner and sommelier Michael Kennedy. Kennedy founded the St. Louis-based Fraîche Wine Group in 2018. The investment group only purchased the real estate property and permits, not the Fairwinds brand. "The acquisition of the Calistoga property reflects our vision of creating experiences that bring together exceptional wines and thoughtful hospitality," the company said in a statement. "The plans for Calistoga Farms include the development of a winery, anticipated to open in spring 2027, featuring a cellar and private caves designed for winery hospitality." The winery is situated along a road busy with wine lovers, nearby Girard Winery, Venge Vineyard, Canard Vineyard and Barlow Vineyards, among others. Michael Kennedy, part of the ownership team at Giovanni Bonelli Group, said in a statement Nov, 4 "We have done a lot of work trying to understand the property, what it was before the fires, what is possible and what we'd love to accomplish in Calistoga. We have done some landscape clean up, refreshed the caves a bit, but really spent our time learning and planning." Kennedy said the team is working with Napa County and a local architect, "to see what is possible for a rebuilding of the burned down winery." "It's been a fun process to dig into the history of the site and learn all about the amazing characters in Napa that made wine in these caves - and hopefully build something beautiful and humble that pays homage to that." The developments in Calistoga take place as Napa County continues to look to tourism to improve local economic growth. A Visit Napa Valley Report released in July found that in 2025, 3.8 million visitors spent $2.2 billion in Napa County, generating $2.8 billion in total economic impact. Domestic overnight visitors are a key piece of that revenue, as while day visitors create 62% of visitor volume, overnight guests account for 88% of all visitor spending. The local tourism industry is also shifting focus as millennial and Gen Z tourists are less interested in luxury travel and more drawn to authentic or unique experiences, according to market researchers. Staff Writer Natalie Hanson reports on business and agriculture for The Press Democrat. She can be reached at [email protected] or at 619-665-5887. (C) 2026 The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.). Visit www.pressdemocrat.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

On Top of the world. on October 28, 2026 Rhoda Magbitang will be the first to admit Filipino cuisine is not her métier. Despite growing up in the Philippines, she'd honed her skills at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, California, where she absorbed the foundational French culinary techniques that would take her to acclaimed restaurants like The Bazaar by José Andrés, Suzanne Goin's A.O.C., and the Michelin-starred Mélisse. But Filipino food is what she's best known for now because it carried her to victory on Bravo's Top Chef earlier this year. For the finale episode that aired in June, she served a four-course meal that paid homage to the lutong-bahay, or Filipino comfort food, that flavored her childhood in Antipolo, near Manila. Her elevated take on those cherished home-style dishes impressed host Kristen Kish and judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons. A guest at the finale meal called her tortang talong, or grilled eggplant omelet, "a revelation" and after she won, the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines issued a public congratulations. "It was eye-opening for me," Magbitang says of the experience. "Filipino food is not my repertoire, it's not something I cook professionally, so when the show came out and all of that happened, what I didn't expect was the outpouring of support from the Filipino community. "I did what I did for the finale because that's what spoke to me and that's what made sense for the final challenge - dedicating dishes to my upbringing and my parents and my food memories. The way a lot of Filipinos were able to relate to the dishes was really incredible." The Top Chef win launched Magbitang into the celebrity chef stratosphere. Fans showed up at Mauna Lani Resort's CanoeHouse on the Big Island, where she is the executive chef, for a chance to meet her. Auberge Collection, the hospitality brand management partner for Mauna Lani, capitalized on the victory by launching a series of intimate beachside dinners featuring Magbitang and fellow season 23 contestants Sieger Bayer, Oscar Diaz, Brittany Cochran and Duyen Ha. Magbitang also made appearances at Auberge properties on the mainland. She says connecting with new supporters - especially kids who have epicurean dreams of their own - really brought home the weight of her accomplishment. "It's such a cool experience, but it's also really humbling," she says. "It's kind of like that Spider-Man quote, 'With great power comes great responsibility.'" It's not just up-and-coming talent seeking her out. The culinary stars she'd watched from afar have welcomed her into the fold. In June, she walked the red carpet at the James Beard Awards in New York City, then shared the stage with host Andrew Zimmern. "It's surreal because you've watched these people on TV and you think, 'Oh, one day maybe it'll be me,'" she says. She returned to the James Beard Foundation in August to prepare a multi-course "Island to Island" meal that traced her personal and gastronomical journey from the Philippines to Hawai'i: abalone lugaw, sticky pork belly adobo, and oxtail served with crispy tripe and peanuts. While Top Chef may have put Magbitang in the spotlight, long before she'd stepped in front of the cameras she'd been quietly working her way up the culinary ladder. In 2024, she became the first woman to ever lead the culinary team at the CanoeHouse. The role put her at the head of a talented kitchen crew that serves up to 300 guests a night. "I have a chef de cuisine, a sous chef, three chef de parties and our line cooks, they're our soldiers. I would not be where I'm at now if it wasn't for them," she says. Before coming to the CanoeHouse, she designed the seasonal, West Coast-forward menu at the revamped Inn at Mattei's Tavern in Los Olivos, California. Auberge Resorts Collection spent several years transforming the historic property into a luxury resort. Within months of its opening in February 2023, the Michelin Guide had included it in its prestigious listing of notable places to eat. Magbitang has always enjoyed being in the kitchen. The oldest of six children, she helped cook family meals. But it wasn't until she moved to the United States at age 17 to join relatives in the Golden State that she considered pursuing it professionally. "Growing up in the Philippines, becoming a chef never really felt like an option," she says. "Food was always a huge part of my life, though. I grew up surrounded by a big extended family, and we shared almost every meal together. I also spent a lot of time helping my grandmother, who operated a food stall, so some of my earliest memories are of preparing ingredients and cooking alongside her." In California, she weighed careers in nursing and teaching before landing at Le Cordon Bleu. "I don't think there was one particular moment when I realized I was good at (cooking)," she says. "It was more about continuing to learn, gaining confidence through experience and realizing that I genuinely loved what I was doing." Turning out elaborate dishes on a tight deadline and navigating surprise challenges appears stressful to the average Top Chef viewer. Magbitang says she could handle those things; waiting for the judges' verdict was the excruciating part. "When the timer is done - and the timer is real - you drop everything and you present your dish and you exit the studio and the judges deliberate. You can't talk during this period. So you're sitting with your own thoughts about how much you sucked and why did you agree to this and you could be sitting on a beach in Hawai'i having the best time instead." So why did she take a chance on Top Chef? She says she'd turned down earlier requests to try out. On the surface, it makes sense. Magbitang is not a big talker. "The less I talk, the more I'm able to focus on what I'm doing, but that's not very conducive to TV," she notes with a laugh. She can be friendly and engaging but doesn't seem to crave attention. She describes her style as "quiet confidence." "Sometimes the producers are in your face and I'm like, 'Don't talk to me now,'" she says. "But sometimes I would tell them, 'Hey, I need maybe 10 minutes of quiet. Approach me after 10 minutes and I will talk your ear off.' And they would do it. Not a lot of people know you can do that." Even on TV, she found her flow state in practicing her craft, not talking about it. "The best way to gauge someone's skill is when no one's looking and they're still performing at a high level," she says. "You can't (fake) your way out of a good stew. A stew is a stew is a stew. If it's good, it's good. If it's not good, that's a technical error." To her way of thinking, cooking comes down to formulas and muscle memory from years of work. "The little components add up, and with your time you have to be really smart," she says. "Being in a restaurant setting day in and day out gets you really good at time management. It's a practice, not really a skill. It's something you have to hone and practice every day." But ultimately, she can't explain what compelled her to audition this time. Maybe the stars had finally aligned: She had the skills, the experience and the desire to see how far she could push herself. Perhaps, like her show-stopping kaldereta (slow-braised short-rib stew), all of the ingredients had marinated into something greater than the sum of their parts. "It kind of felt almost like an unseen force made me do it," she says. "And I'll stand by this: I don't think I would have done as well as I did if I did this at any other time." Follow Magbitang on Instagram (@rockyrhodakill). Season 23 of Top Chef is available for streaming on peacock.com.