What’s the most memorable meal you can have in wine country?

Many will say it’s not to be found in a restaurant; just pack a picnic basket, head for a winery, buy a bottle or two of wine, and, not withstanding a few carnivorous bugs, enjoy an alfresco meal, especially now when the temperatures have mellowed and the sights and scents of harvest are all around.

To come up with a menu for a harvest picnic, we turned to Julie Logue-Riordan, the owner and director of Cooking with Julie. Logue-Riordan, a classically trained chef from L’Academie de Cuisine, taught and traveled the world studying food before settling in wine country three years ago. Here she teaches cooking classes where she imparts tips and techniques she learned from working with the likes of Roland Mesnier, Paula Wolfert, Jean-Louis Palladin, Giuliano Bugialli and Francois Dionot.

Regusci Winery in Silverado Trail in Napa is one of the wineries that welcomes picnickers, with tables set up on grassy areas just beyond the vineyards. Regusci is also one of the classic wineries of the valley. Set back off the trail, it was founded in the 1880s; names and dates carved into its old stone building are from 1905. The present owners bought the winery in the 1930s, and their signature cabernet sauvignon is one of the best in the valley.

We met Logue-Riordan at Regusci on one of those picture-perfect early autumn days, and while she put out the spread she’d prepared we got a bottle of Regusci cab and their remarkable rosé of cabernet sauvignon, a practically perfect picnic wine.

“The easiest picnics are when you just clean out the fridge,” said Logue-Riordan, who keeps a basket ready for impromptu picnics. “If you have any cold, leftover meat, that works. Then you can fill in with a few special items from a deli, like Vallerga’s or Genova.”

But, she added, this was a special occasion, a harvest picnic, so she’d planned a more elaborate menu, based around a roast filet she’d done in advance. “A lot of people like to cook when they picnic, but that’s a whole different story,” she noted.

She put the meat under a net at a separate table, nicely diverting all the yellow jackets, who abandoned any other dish to buzz around it, while she unpacked the rest of her harvest feast. To serve with the meat, she’d made a sauce of mayonnaise, heavy cream, coarse country-style Dijon mustard, regular Dijon mustard, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. She’d marinated olives in olive oil seasoned with crushed garlic, fennel seeds, a little sea salt, orange zest and dried red pepper flakes. She’d made a foccacia with duck confit and garnished with fried sage leaves. “I got (the duck confit) at the Fatted Calf,” she said. “It is wonderful.” (This vendor has a stand at the Napa’s farmers markets and will be opening a shop at the Oxbow Public Market later this fall.)

The menu also included a potato salad made with some of the cooking water from fingerling potatoes rather than mayonnaise (delectable) and a green bean salad.

For dessert she’d baked a pear cake made with chestnut flour. “You can use regular flour,” she said, “but the chestnut flour (available online) gives it an extra richness.” She’d secured the cake for traveling by putting the cake plate on top of a damp towel in its Tupperware case. “It doesn’t slip around,” she said, “and then you have a towel. Damp towels are one of the secrets of cooking schools.”

Logue-Riordan had also packed in her always-ready to go basket:

• Place mats, not a table cloth. “They don’t need to be ironed and won’t blow away.”

• “cheap and cheerful napkins, plates and cutlery.”

• Plastic bags. “You can just put the dishes into it when you’re done.”

• Salt and pepper

• Corkscrew

• Stemless glasses. “They won’t tip over. I’m always on the lookout for little glasses containers with plastic lids.”

• A flexible cutting board

• Hand sanitizer

• A bread knife

“Once you have a picnic basket ready,” she said, “at least half the work is done.”

As Logue-Riordan garnished her cake with cinnamon-flavored whipped cream (“Pack your garnishes separately”), the spread attracted the attention of a group of cyclists, who had arrived at Regusci. One wandered over to see what was going on, and to sample the wine and food.

“Wow,” said, Don Howard, who along with his wife Connie, was visiting the valley from Louisiana. “This lady can cook.”

For more information about Logue-Riordan’s cooking classes, visit www.cookingwithjulie.com or call (707) 257-7939.