We’re going to see a lot more of Michael Chiarello in wine country.

Sure the familiar face on Food Network lives here, but in recent years he’s been gallivanting around the country and Europe searching for product lines to enhance his NapaStyle business. And he was often on the road taping cooking shows happily gobbled up by hungry America.

But now he’s shifted his focus. Chiarello still has his finger on the pulse of NapaStyle and is planning a new TV program for foodies. However, the TV shows will be taped before live local audiences and his “ottimo” NapaStyle store has opened in Yountville, along with a tantalizing paninoteca.

And, “before the last grape is picked” this year, he intends to get back into the restaurant business — opening a casual Italian eatery called Bottega across from NapaStyle in V Marketplace, which, once upon a time, was called Vintage 1870.

Napans first got to know Chiarello as the founding chef of Tra Vigne in St. Helena, a wine country landmark he helped launch more than two decades ago.

Drawing on his southern Italian heritage, he went on to establish NapaStyle and Consorzio flavored oils as well as a wine brand.

NapaStyle showcases an eclectic mix of handcrafted and exclusive home goods and artisanal specialty foods that encourage experimentation with cooking, entertaining, garden and home. Chiarello shares his ideas and his lifestyle, and his passion for sustainable living, through the NapaStyle catalog as well as his TV shows and cookbooks. NapaStyle has retail stores located throughout California, including Berkeley, Corte Madera, Los Gatos and Pasadena.

And now he has opened the first of his Yountville ventures, his flagship NapaStyle Store, Paninoteca and Wine Bar. Coming later this year in an adjacent building (where Chutney Kitchen’s Don and Sally Schmitt entertained locals long before they launched the French Laundry) will be his new 90-seat restaurant, Bottega.

Flagship store

NapaStyle Yountville boasts an array of experiences not yet found in the other NapaStyle stores, including:

• A Paninoteca and outdoor cafe, where freshly pressed hot and cold panini, seasonal salads and antipasti plates can be enjoyed outside on the patio or taken to go.

• A specialty wine shop and tasting bar, offering wine by the tasting, quartino (glass and a half), or bottle, and featuring wines from Chiarello Family Vineyards and other northern California producers, along with a selection of glasses, decanters, openers and wine accessories.

• Napa Valley’s first salumeria and curing room, offering Chiarello’s blend of organic, heirloom pork salami, prosciutto and other cured meats.

• Chiarello’s Ottimo line of just-made specialty spreads, dips, conservas, including Prosciutto Paté, Cambozola Roasted Garlic Spread and Apricot-Black Anise Marmellata, made fresh daily featuring just-picked produce, available only at NapaStyle Yountville.

• An olive oil blending and bottling bar, which houses six of the world’s best extra virgin olive oils in large fustinos for guests to try and take home.

• The full line of NapaStyle homewares, cookware, and serveware.

“We offer everything associated with cooking, from what you eat to what you eat it on,” Chiarello noted during a visit to the new V Marketplace shop, referring to an antique dinner table on display.

“We are building much more than a store in Yountville,” he said. “Yountville has more Michelin-stars per capita than any other city in the country. We’ll strive to bring the same level of excellence you would find in Yountville’s restaurants to the retail experience.”

A demonstration kitchen is available for cooking classes, tastings, and other private events and dinners for up to 80 people.

Box lunches and picnic baskets full to the brim with provisions are also available for enjoying while taking in the local sights. In addition, locals can order box lunches to go, whether it’s for the crew at the office or the winery crush crew. You can order online or call 945-1229 or 945-1230, and then pick it up with no waiting in line.

A new eatery

In addition to filming episodes of a new TV show in the complex’s Barrel Room, Chiarello will open a restaurant across from his flagship store before the proverbial snow flies.

Under construction at the moment, Bottega will being together two other hospitality industry veterans in the valley. Nick Ritchie will be the restaurant’s chef de cuisine while Joël Hoachuck will serve as restaurant general manager.

In addition to 90 seats inside, Bottega will feature a 38-seat outdoor lounge and incorporate a pair of fireplaces in the design. Because Chiarello feels valley restaurants are short on tables for large parties, his new eatery will have four tables seating a dozen people.

Chiarello and  his wife, Eileen, intend for the new restaurant to be informal.

“We’ll be making pasta daily on one of the marble tables,” the renowned chef explains, “and if we’re not finished by the time our first dinner guests arrive we may put them to work.”

Bottega will feature meats, poultry and seafood cooked over a wood-burning grill and will offer a slew of Napa Valley wines priced “slightly above retail.”

Chiarello continues as the Emmy Award-winning host of “Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello” on Food Network. His latest cookbook, “At Home with Michael Chiarello,” follows “Michael Chiarello’s Casual Cooking” — which won the 2002 IACP Award — in addition to “Napa Stories,” “The Tra Vigne Cookbook,” and “Flavored Vinegars and Flavored Oils.” He’s also proprietor of a small family winery, Chiarello Family Vineyards, making estate wines from the historic 94-year old vineyards surrounding his home in St. Helena.