Source: https://www.vsattui.com/about-us/newsletter/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 18:36:45+00:00

Document:
Ask our new Wine and Food Paring Host Virginia Mulrooney what she loves most about working at V. Sattui and she’ll tell you, bar none, it’s the atmosphere of family that makes this the best job she’s ever had. From co-workers to club members – the inclusive feeling of friendship and family is the first thing you feel when you step on property and this talented pastry chef turned wine maven was sold on her very first day.
Virginia has been with the company since 2016 – beginning as a concierge and dipping her toes into many facets of V.Sattui life before settling in as our Wine & Food Pairing host where she loves to enhance guest’s enjoyment of our wines by teaching them how different flavors and textures can elevate a vintage to the next level.
Favorite V. Sattui wines and pairings? 2016 Los Carneros Chardonnay and delicate yet decadent crab cakes or 2012 Prestige Cuvée and creamy truffled brie.
When she’s not at the winery, you’ll find Virginia and her new husband Ryan (who happens to be V. Sattui’s Corporate Culinary Manager and Sous Chef to Stefano Masanti!) spending the day hiking, enjoying wine tasting excursions on bikes or riding the roller coasters at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.
Originally from Cresskill, a small town in northern NJ, Rob earned a Law degree from NYU but after only a few years in practice, realized destiny was leading him down a different path. Vacations in Napa Valley over the years including visits to his favorite winery, V. Sattui, inspired a cross country move to pursue a career in the wine industry. Rob quickly rose in the ranks from Greeter to Tour Manager to Tasting Room Manager where his myriad of talents shine.
What makes Rob’s days in Napa Valley amazing? Leading a talented team of wine tenders while learning the inner-workings of the wine business – not to mention the tremendous variety of wines that allow him to taste something new and exciting almost every day. Another bonus? Working with his sister Virginia! Its true! She made the journey first, but both love V. Sattui equally and we’re lucky to have them on our team.
Rob’s top three V. Sattui picks: 2013 Morisoli Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, 2014 Paradiso and 2012 Reserve Merlot. All are phenomenal reds he loves to sip solo or enjoy paired with a perfectly grilled dry-aged rib-eye.
When Rob is away from the winery, you’ll find him blowing bubbles and playing short stop for the V. Sattui softball team or singing a mean Karaoke rendition of “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” at Ana’s Cantina. We do too Rob. And we believe in you!
Lynn is our “host with the most” here at the winery ready to greet you and guide you to the perfect V. Sattui experience. As part of the V. Sattui Family since 1985 – she is a bona fide expert in all things Sattui and has done it all from weddings and events to hospitality in the Cellar Club to serving our members as a personal Wine Consultant on the phone! No matter where she is or what she’s doing, she always talking about our brand.
Lynn takes her love of V. Sattui even further by keeping our local visitor centers, hotels, B&B’s, restaurants and transportation partners up-to-date on all of the latest and greatest winery news and happenings. You’ll even find her pouring our award-winning wines at fantastic events throughout Napa Valley and in the bay area sharing our unique story and brand philosophy. She’s our ambassador-extraordinaire and the perfect Lead Concierge. Be sure to stop by the Concierge desk on your next visit to say hello!
Favorite V. Sattui wine: 2017 Rosato-di-Sangiovese. Why? It’s like summertime in a glass! Pair with soft-ripened brie, house cured bresaola and honey crisp apple slices.
When she’s not at the winery or talking about our wines, you’ll find this talented artist creating beautiful floral designs or belting out her favorite tune. This girl can rock a mic!
Joe joined the V. Sattui family in 2017 as Culinary Director bringing with him an incredible background in culinary arts, entrepreneurship and restaurant management. His creativity has elevated our culinary program and we are thrilled to announce his expanded position as our new Marketplace Manager.
From his first wine country experience cooking at Domaine Chandon in Yountville to opening and operating Rhumba in Boulder Colorado for ten years – his own successful Caribbean Restaurant and Rum Bar – to selling it all to travel the world, scuba dive and open his own yoga studio, Joe is no stranger to adventure and daring innovation. Joe brings this passion and energy to V. Sattui Winery where you’ll find him running the weekend BBQ, developing exciting new bites for our wine and food pairings and raising the bar daily in our Artisan Deli and Italian Marketplace.
Favorite V. Sattui Wine: Entanglement. Why? This juicy, balanced blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre is delicious on its own or served up with bacon wrapped, blue cheese and marcona almond stuffed dates.
When he’s not onsite, you’ll find Joe exploring the great outdoors camping, scuba diving or mountain biking.
Thanks to the success of our business over the years and to patrons like yourselves, V. Sattui has the opportunity to share the wealth and truly make a difference in the community. We believe leadership is a responsibility and this give us purpose. Our supporting efforts are relevant not only for Napa Valley residents, but also important and meaningful for our V. Sattui Winery family of employees. In this article, we’ll share with you a few ways we demonstrate our larger purpose as part of a living community.
Over the last 20 years, V. Sattui has proudly protected nearly 600 acres through conservation easements ensuring these lands will in perpetuity be protected from commercial or residential development. The character of Napa County is, for the most part, rural and agricultural, unlike many of our neighboring counties that have allowed their farms, orchards, vineyards and woodlands to be developed into sprawling housing subdivisions and shopping centers. One of the only ways to prevent further encroachment of homes and storefronts in the Napa Valley (along with supporting the Napa County Agricultural Preserve–celebrating its 50 anniversary this year) is to grant conservation easements so our lands will be preserved for the enjoyment of current residents along with future generations to come. The Napa Valley is a very special place, with the ideal climate and soils to produce world-class grapes, used to produce world-class wines. Eventually, all of the land owned by V. Sattui, totaling some 1,000 acres will be protected through contract easements and the Napa Land Trust.
The field trip is a joint effort created by the V. Sattui staff and by the RLS 8th grade teachers as a tool for unifying core subjects of history, social sciences, language arts, mathematics, and science into the real-world workplace. The students arrive at 9 am and are greeted by Tom who speaks to them on the Sattui family’s immigration and the history of the winery, including Prohibition. They then break into small groups where they sequentially attend 5 short lectures presented by the V. Sattui Executive Management team on topics such as the science of winemaking, mathematical applications in business, and language arts as it applies to communication with consumers and employees. At noon students are treated to a picnic lunch. After returning to school, the students are required to write a detailed, multi-paragraph expository essay that recounts their experience and what they learned at the winery.
V. Sattui is extremely proud to employ a great many graduates of the St. Helena Unified School System in full-time positions, as department managers or assistant managers, as well as providing summer employment to high schoolers or college students returning for the summer. Additionally, the winery hosts an end-of-year gathering for RLS teachers, staff and administrators on the last day of the school year, as a way of saying thank you for caring for and cultivating our future employees and leaders.
Recently, we hosted our student-employees, which included a full tour of the winery, the vineyards and a luncheon. Tom Davies recalled the partnership formed thanks to a V. Sattui employee’s mother, who worked in special education. “I look at it as a great, long-term partnership.” As part of the job experience, the students learn to get to the work location on time, fill out time sheets and sign for their paychecks, after which they learn how to access the bank. Last year, we sold 30,000 picnic packs—and we thank all of our patrons for helping us help others in our community. We can state with certainty that our staff takes a warm pride in knowing that we are helping to make a difference in the lives of young adults in our county every time they explain to our guests the underlying reason our picnic packs are for sale.
A recent and notable project is our purchase of a new food delivery truck (in collaboration with our sister winery Castello di Amorosa) that will transport daily meals to our senior citizens who can’t drive but still wish to live independently. The volunteers of the Napa Valley Meals on Wheels program will deliver over 400 meals daily from American Canyon in the south to Calistoga in the north of Napa County. This new delivery van is a welcome upgrade, as it will be outfitted for the purpose at-hand, and will replace a couple older vehicles which were no longer suitable for the mission or for the distances to be traveled 7 days a week. In a subtle way, we believe that we are giving back to the many people in the Napa Valley who have supported us over the years by bringing their family and friends to enjoy the wine country and the experience at V. Sattui.
Even the most casual visitor to the Napa Valley has recently observed vineyards being torn out at an alarming rate and replanted. This activity tends to come in cycles as growers replant vineyards established 25 to 30 years ago. The long-term productivity of vines can be compromised not only by age, but also by pests and disease.
The cost to replant a vineyard is staggering. A typical cost to replant an acre of vines is between $30,000 to $35,000, depending on site specifics, such as slope, soil preparation, drainage and spacing. This figure does not include the economic loss of three years of production, as it takes up to four years until the vines are fully producing. So it comes as no surprise, V.Sattui Winery is committed to taking preventative action to improve the long-term economic viability of our vineyards.
The vine mealybug. Pests come in a variety of forms. They can be soil-born (nematodes), viruses, as well as insect and fungal pests. One pest, the invasive, non-native vine mealybug arrived in the U. S. in the early 1990’s and has been expanding ever since. The vine mealybug has a very high reproductive rate (4-7 generations per year) and within 15 years it had been found in 17 California counties. It has the potential of severely damaging the quality and yield of our wine grapes if left unchecked. Growers are quick to respond when the mealybug is found as infestations can cause a devastating and total loss of crop in severe cases. Mealybugs have recently been proven to be a disease vector and can transmit harmful grapevine viruses.
While we’ve been fortunate to avoid any significant losses in our own vineyards, we realize the importance of being vigilant. Therefore, V. Sattui has been conducting trials on various options to protect our healthy vineyards. Research into alternative treatments to control the mealybug, including pheromone disruption and parasitic wasp releases, have been ongoing for some years with their results reported in scientific journals. The staff at the University of California Cooperative Education, in conjunction with the Napa Valley Agricultural Commissioner, conducted a study in Napa Valley and shared their initial results with the local farmers.
What did we learn? For many years we have relied on standard insecticide treatments with inconsistent results and without eradicating the pest. Because the adult insects hide under the bark of the vine’s trunk they are often protected from traditional contact sprays. This behavior was also a limiting factor in parasitic wasp effectiveness in other trials. After seeing that pesticides alone were not working effectively in our vineyards we wanted to consider alternative treatments such as pheromone applications.
The use of pheromones is intended to disrupt the mating behavior of the insects, primarily by confusing the male’s ability to find the females (the males have wings and can fly while the females are wingless) during the mating season and thereby preventing a new generation of mealybugs. The flight of male mealybugs can be monitored using traps to determine the most effective timing of the pheromone applications. During trials it was found that the pheromone treatment also enhanced the effectiveness of parasitic predators, and control by natural-occurring, beneficial insects.
In 2016 we decided to try this practice in our own vineyards, and shared our results with other neighboring vineyards, some of whom did not use the pheromone. This gave us the opportunity to compare the results of pheromone use in our trial to insecticide sprays used by others (the “control” in our trials).
The sun is shining … and the wine is fine! We have selected five refreshing, food-friendly wines ready for pool parties, beach bonfires, and just about anything fresh off the grill. What else is shining and bright?
My wife, Cara and I recently returned home from hosting our 4th V. Sattui Winery Cruise in eight years. We sailed from Lisbon, Portugal with stops in La Coruna and Bilbao, Spain, as well as Saint-Jean-De-Luz and Bordeaux in France. Lisbon opened its arms to us as we enjoyed its narrow streets, colorfully-tiled buildings, trolley cars, amazing restaurants and wines, Fado music and seven hills along with the classic Portuguese Belem custard pastries sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon. We discovered and consumed the greatest vintages of Taylor’s, Churchill’s and Grahams Port, one 90-years old. We visited the world-renowned Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, ate in a Michelin-starred restaurant and spent a day visiting Left Bank Chateaux in Bordeaux, France followed by a multi-course Estate dinner at Chateau Giscours in Margaux. Our cruise ended with a visit to Stonehenge, after we disembarked in South Hampton, Great Britain. Yes, I have a great job!
Our cruises always include our best wines, as we ship ahead a pallet of V. Sattui wine for onboard dinners, cabin gifts, wine seminars and tastings. This last cruise included a wine-paired, five-course Winemaker’s Dinner, a Big Bottle Extravaganza of our vintage magnums, double magnums and imperials and a vertical seminar of 6 vintages of Paradiso. Our 2019 cruise will be announced shortly – stayed tuned.
This weekend, June 24-25, we are releasing our 2014 La Merica, a new wine that honors the winery’s Italian heritage and embraces the importance of immigration. La Merica is a modern interpretation of a classic, pre-prohibition blend of Zinfandel and Petite Sirah. This wine celebrates the bravery of Italian immigrants like Vittorio Sattui who risked everything to come to this country in the late 1800s virtually penniless and speaking only Italian. Sattui was just one of many courageous Italians who left a home filled with poverty and political hardship for a new home filled with hope and opportunity. In the dialect of their native tongue, they affectionately referred to their new home in America as “La Merica”.
This new-world blend steers these classic grapes away from the rustic, old-world style, and boldly produces a wine filled with deeply, dark-fruited flavors, inky-purple color and lingering textures. I’m a big fan of this wine!
We hope your summer travels include a visit to the Napa Valley and V. Sattui Winery. We’ve expanded our experiences, including our new Terrace Tastings, added new offerings in our Vittorio Room and have many great new releases to share, including a stellar lineup of 2013 Cabernets and 2014 Zinfandels. Be sure to make your reservations now for our annual Festa Italiana on July 29 and our famous Harvest Ball on September 16th. These events are always sellouts, so please make your reservations quickly.
Here’s to a great summer with family, friends and of course, V. Sattui!
The Terrace Tasting: This is the al fresco wine-country experience you’ve been waiting for! Enjoy a gorgeous view of Vittorio’s Vineyard while you sample your choice of five wines from our top-tier portfolio. Mixed olives and almonds are included in the $35 tasting fee or you can elevate your experience with a cheese and charcuterie platter curated by our new Culinary Director, Joe Schneider. This experience is for guests 21 and over only. Please allow 45 minutes for this tasting. Seatings begin at 11am on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays with a final seating at 3pm.
NEW Concierge: As our portfolio of tastings and unique experiences grow, we’ve added a team of experts to help you make the most of your next visit. Our knowledgeable concierges will greet you upon arrival and guide you to the perfect experience for you – be it a barrel tasting in the Cellar Club, a tasting of our most coveted releases in the Vittorio Tower or table tasting on the Terrace – they’ll help you make the perfect selection. Ready to relax in our beautiful, shaded picnic grounds with a glass of wine? Our concierges will show you the way to our famous Italian Marketplace and our Weekend BBQ so you can select the perfect accompaniments to your favorite V. Sattui wines.
Daily Tours: Enhance your visit by joining one of our Daily Tours for a fun and informative experience. Our knowledgeable guides will walk you through the winemaking process from start to finish and share the rich history of the Sattui family and V. Sattui Winery, which originated in the 1800’s. Stops will be made in our Estate vineyard and production room and end in our barrel aging cellar where you’ll enjoy a flight of hand-selected wines. Please engage with our tour guides; ask them all the things you’ve ever wanted to know about the fascinating world of winemaking. Enjoy our terrific edu-tainment and fantastic wines! We recommend advance reservations for our popular daily tours.
Weekend BBQ: Ready for something a little heartier to go along with your favorite bottle? This time of year, our BBQ is in full swing Saturdays and Sundays. Billows of amazing aromas will draw you in the moment you arrive – leading you to a veritable feast of BBQ classics. You’ll find succulent, smoky-sweet BBQ ribs and juicy Tri-tip steak, both of which are simply incredible with a generous glass of 2014 Black Sears, Howell Mountain Zinfandel. Our famous Salmon Sandwich and Jalapeno Skewers will beckon you back for seconds. Italian-style thin crust, wood-fired pizzas are made to order and will please everyone in the family – down to the youngest guests.
Still hungry for more? You won’t want to miss our hand-pulled mozzarella – all done in-house – with heirloom tomatoes, grilled bread & basil and your choice of sauces. And, as always, you’ll discover an incomparable cheese selection in our Italian Marketplace and Deli along with beautiful house-cured charcuterie and all of the final touches needed for a perfect picnic. No reservations required.
Festa Italiana: Plan your visit for Saturday, July 29th and complete your day in wine country with our highly-anticipated, mid-summer celebration. Join us from 6pm to 10pm, as we gather under the oaks for a mid-summer celebration in honor of friends, family and all that is Italian! Indulge in house-made pastas, salads, grilled tri-tip and fresh salmon, courtesy of our resident chefs Gerardo Sainato and Stefano Masanti. Guest chef Angelo Ibleto, the infamous “pig man” from Petaluma, returns to astound you with his succulent roasted wild boar. All this extraordinary food will be served alongside your favorite V. Sattui wines – including our two newest releases, both dedicated to our Italian heritage – 2014 La Merica and 2016 Rosato di Sangiovese. Dance under the stars to live music, feast with abandon, revel in the festivities and make memories that will last a lifetime. We hope to see you at this summer event. Secure your reservation today! Members: $98 / Non-Members: $119.
To learn more about our calendar of events and new tasting experiences at V. Sattui Winery, please call (707) 963-7774 or visit us online.
Refreshingly crisp with tropical aromas that follow into a delicate minerality, soft acidity, and silky texture.
This food-friendly refresher has flavors of lime zest and nectarine. Beautifully balanced with vibrant acidity.
A limited-production Rhone Valley variety, this light-bodied red offers herbal and blackberry aromas, sweet oak and a little smoke.
Elegant and well-balanced with fruit sourced from Lodi, known for vibrant and delicious early-drinking Zins.
Lightly sparkling with delicate aromas of orange blossom and just enough sweetness.
Visit our WINE SPECIALS online for additional wine sales offered throughout the season or phone (707) 963-7774.

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