Tuesday, February 26, 7:00 P.M.
Members $95, guests $120

What's better than a pairing of wine and food? How about the pairing of two talented restaurateur brothers with a husband-and-wife team from one of California's premier wineries? Call it pairs squared, if you like, but the combination of Craig and Keith Schauffel from Pairs Napa Valley with John and Janet Trefethen of Trefethen Vineyards is certain to be exponentially delicious.

Pairs Napa Valley is "a class act of imagination and comfort," Sasha Paulsen wrote in the Napa Valley Register, describing the California-and-Asian-inspired restaurant as "Zen romantic." Paulsen called the roasted mussels with tomato-coconut broth and cilantro-lime fettuccini "a definite winner" and praised the "signature (and terrific) lemon calamari with citrus aïoli." Appellation's Erika Lenkert loved the "delicious" mussels as well as the "bright, delicate, and unswervingly Asian" sea bass with daikon-mushroom sauce and nori. "Very sophisticated. Very one-world," was how Sacramento Press Democrat critic Jeff Cox described Pairs, giving the food four and a half out of five stars.

Brothers Craig and Keith Schauffel both began their careers at the CIA, Craig graduating with an associate's degree in culinary studies and Keith taking a degree in pastry. After that their paths diverged. Craig worked for Seppi Renggli at the Four Seasons, and was on the reopening team for the '21' Club under Alain Sailhac and Anne Rosenzweig. He moved west to work as chef of Cain Cellars in the Napa Valley, and in 1991, opened the catering company Pairs: Eloquence in Food and Wine, which evolved, with help from brother Keith, into the Pairs Parkside Café in St. Helena, and finally into Pairs Napa Valley. The name refers not only to the joint effort of the two brothers but also to the menu's suggested pairings of wine varietals or sake for every course. Although he now runs the front of the house, Keith worked for a long time in the pastry kitchen, after attending écoles de pâtisserie in Lucerne and Cordes, France. He returned to New York and positions at Manhattan's Plaza Hotel, La Brasserie, and René Pujol. Along with his restaurant duties, Keith now teaches at CIA (Greystone) and the Napa Valley Cooking School.

Trefethen Vineyards, the largest contiguous winery under a single ownership in California, has been owned by the Trefethen family since 1968, when John Trefethen's parents, Eugene and Katie Trefethen, bought the land of the former Eshcol ranch in the southern Napa Valley. Since then, the winery has been taken over with much success by John and Janet Trefethen. John, a graduate of the Stanford Business School, met Janet, a former Miss California Rodeo, while she was working at the Winegrower Foundation. Among the medals and accolades in the Trefethen war chest: their 1998 Chardonnay won Best in the World at the World Wine Olympics; the 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon received the gold medal at the Tasters Guild International Wine Competition, and the 1994 won Double Gold Medal and Best of Class, Napa Appellation at the California State Fair Wine Competition. Of the dry Riesling, Los Angeles Times critic Dan Berger wrote, "If you miss this wine, you'll miss one of the treats of the western wine world."