Senders in the News

Senders Wine Dinner  August 25, 2010

Davis Life Magazine - WELL FED

We were recently invited into the El Macero home of Senders Wines owners Craig and Karen Senders for a wonderful evening of food and wine pairings. Winemaker Craig Senders is a professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology at the University of California, Davis where he specializes in treating facial birth defects like cleft lip and cleft palate. Karen is the marketing director for Senders Wines and was the chef extraordinaire for the evening with a little help from her sous chef, their 16-year-old son Parker.

The evening started in the kitchen with their 2007 Pinot Noir Reserve and a beautiful cheese platter with multi-grain cracker bread and fresh figs. The cheese selection included Manchego, Bleu Cheese, a dry Jack and a double-creme Gouda. The other dinner guests for the evening were my husband as well as Megan Klugh, long-time Davis Life Magazine photo editor and her husband Zac.

The Pinot Noir grapes used for this particular wine were from the Carneros Region in Sonoma and were aged in the two new barrels recently acquired by Senders Wines. Twenty percent of the grapes were fermented with whole clusters while the rest was crushed. I asked what the difference was and why you would ferment the grape clusters and Craig said that among other things, the leaves add tea flavors to the wine. This Reserve Pinot just one a gold ribbon at the California State Fair.

When I asked Craig how he has time to make wine on top of being in clinics and surgery all day he said, “Making the wine is a commitment, but doable. Selling is more effort than I ever expected.”

After enjoying the cheese, Karen and Craig took us into the lovely backyard. Besides the lovely patio with a raised fireplace, there were wonderful gardens filled mostly with Craig’s prized tomatoes. Behind the gardens were the farm fields with the Sacramento city skyline in the distance. We wandered through the gardens admiring the many different varieties of tomatoes and eating the smaller varieties warm off of the vine. Karen said that even with Craig’s busy schedule, he’ll come home from clinics or surgery and head right to the garden to tend to his tomatoes.

The rest of the menu was centered around the fresh ripe tomatoes from the garden. Each course had some kind of “tomato infusion,” Karen said. We sat at the beautifully set table on the patio and were served a two-layer cold soup. It was absolutely gorgeous. The bottom layer was an avocado soup and the top layer a gazpacho. The avocado was cool and creamy and the gazpacho was full of ripe tomato flavors with just the right touch of heat from one jalapeño. Karen told us since she was busy and slightly behind that day, she recruited Parker to help. She said that he pretty much had made this entire dish on his own. I mentioned that our teenager made only pancakes, and not for us, only for his girlfriend.

The soup was served with the 2008 Rose’ which was made with Cabernet grapes instead of Pinot. This gave it a mature flavor, not too sweet, and we all enjoyed it very much. I’m not a Rose’ fan by any means and whenever I’m asked to try it at a winery, it’s much too sweet for me. This was perfectly balanced and I had a second glass.

We’ll cover the second half of the Senders Wines dinner in an upcoming post, so stay tuned! In the meantime, you can enjoy Senders Wines at Nugget, Seasons, Aioli, Osteria Fasulo and Mustard Seed. http://www.senderswines.com/