The California Wine Country may be America's Provence, but like its grape-bearing vines, its reputation has crept far beyond its viticultural roots-to fine inns, fine dining and, especially in recent years, fine art. It's all intertwined like a tangled vine, with galleries in wineries, sculpture gardens at luxurious inns and art on the walls of many restaurants. Autumn, with the vineyards ablaze in reds and golds, may be the finest season for a visit.

Any art lover's tour of the Napa Valley should begin at Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & The Arts. The 12-acre, $55-million Napa museum, which opened in 2001, exhibits master metalsmith Harriete Estel Berman and a nationwide tin-can sculpture contest through January. Permanent exhibits include Dennis Oppenheim's conceptual art, a Stephen De Staebler bronze and areas devoted to food, wine, organic gardening and architecture. On the third Thursday of each month you can take part in the nearby downtown riverfront art walk.

Next March, Copia hosts the signature event (the Marketplace at Copia) of the Wine Country's biggest annual cultural happening: the 13th Napa Valley Mustard Festival (Jan. 28-April 1). Food, wine, music and art events occur every weekend, plus photography and juried art exhibitions at Mumm Napa Winery, St. Supery Winery and the Culinary Institute of America.

Napa is also home to the di Rosa Preserve, a 217-acre patch of paradise where four galleries, one in an 1886 stone winery, are scattered around a lake. The 2,100 works are by 900 regional artists and sculptors. You can drop in to visit the main gallery or reserve a two-hour tour of the entire grounds. The di Rosa's Benefit Art Exhibition and Auction last fall featured 85 artists and raised $180,000 for the preserve.

Napa's Hess Collection Winery fuses art and wine with exquisite taste. Art is found throughout its three-story winery, 10 minutes up a forest road from the valley. The modern and contemporary works include some by Francis Bacon, Robert Motherwell and Frank Stella. Another Napa winery, Mumm Napa, features 27 Ansel Adams originals on permanent display and 120 rare “Legends of Rock” photos through March 13.

Driving north through the picturesque Napa Valley towns, you'll first pass through Yountville, with its galleries and the French Laundry-“best restaurant in the world,” according to Restaurant Magazine. (It's also the world's toughest reservation.) Also in Yountville is Cliff Lede Vineyards, which just opened a gallery to complement its new Poetry Inn. The gallery exhibits plein-air landscapes by William Glen Crooks through the holidays, followed by large-scale works by Tony Scherman. Lede, an avid collector, also displays contemporary sculptures by Jim Dine, Keith Haring and others throughout the winery grounds. In Oakville, the Robert Mondavi Winery features seven Bufano sculptures and a gallery of Maury Lapp's watercolors through November. In St. Helena, Markham Vineyards' gallery shows Ed Furuike's oil landscapes through December.