Special Events

July 20th Wine Paired Dinner featuring wines by Saintsbury

6:30pm $50/person

With Speaker Philippa Ward

(See Her Biography Below)

First Course

Pacific Cupped Oysters

Fresh California Oysters with Brulee Lemon, Wasabi Cocktail and Mignonette Granite

Paired with 2008 Saintsbury Carneros Chardonnay

Second Course

Duck and Egg

Confit Maple Leaf Farms Duck Leg with Pan Fried Quail Egg and Sundried Cranberry Gastrique

Paired with 2008 Saintsbury Carneros Pinot Noir

Third Course

Pacific Coast Wahoo

Poached in Sweet Lemon Butter, Pickled Maui Onion and Sprout Salad Finished with Avocado Emulsion

Paired with 2010 Saintsbury Carneros Vin Gris of Pinot Noir

Fourth Course

Grape Sorbet Duo

Red Grape Sorbet with Sauvignon Blanc Macerated White Grapes

Paired with German Nachtgold Eiswein

Philippa Ward is the daughter of Saintsbury founder Richard Ward.  She was highly active with Saintsbury Winery having lived on the property growing up. 

Nowadays she has made her name in real estate but her ties to the family business has never been stronger.  Philippa travels the country attending wine tastings and speaking at wine dinners on behalf of Saintsbury.
 
Saintsbury was founded in 1981 by winemakers Richard Ward and David Graves. The winery was named in honor of George Saintsbury, an English man of letters best known for his, Notes on a Cellar Book. The winery established its reputation early on for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and has long been a champion of these varieties.

In 1983, Carneros was granted AVA status. At the southernmost section of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, Carneros is the coolest AVA of each of these two regions. The moderating breeze that flows off the adjacent San Pablo Bay allows for a longer growing season for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which are historically early ripening varietals.
 

An important part of the success of Saintsbury has been its unwavering commitment not just to demonstrating that world-class Pinot Noir could be a California mainstay, but also the founders’ commitment to the vineyards of Carneros as a source of outstanding grapes. The appellation was officially created in 1983, two years after Saintsbury’s founding. In the more than a quarter century since jumping in to wine, Dick and Dave have always believed that innovation and a critical look at the vineyard, terroir and winemaking is the best route to increasing quality. Experimentation in the vineyard and in the cellar led to the early adoption of new Pinot Noir clones, the acceptance of new and intricate irrigation regimens, and critical evaluations of the impact of filtering and must manipulation, all results of a “philosophy of investigation” that have helped make Saintsbury one of America’s foremost Pinot Noir producers.

According to the Wine Spectator’s Matt Kramer, Saintsbury not only “single-handedly demolished the old assertion that California cannot create Pinot Noirs of a Burgundian standard of delicacy and finesse,” but also “no winery has been more methodical in its investigation and pursuit of newly available Pinot Noir clones than Saintsbury.”