Thursday, January 27, 7:00 pm
Members $100, guests $125

Although these days it seems like every ex-dotcommer with a couple of acres is starting a winery, things were different back in 1948. That’s when Mario Trinchero moved his wife and kids from New York out to the sleepy northern California town of St. Helena, where Mario and his brother John had purchased the abandoned Sutter Home winery. Years of hard work followed, with an explosion in popularity in 1972, after Mario’s son, Bob Trinchero, produced white Zinfandel, which made Sutter Home America’s number-one-selling table wine brand. In 1998, after 50 years in the business, the Trinchero family opened Trinchero Winery across Highway 29 from Sutter Home’s Victorian mansion. Trinchero’s boutique wines come from sustainably farmed vineyards and feature the varietals identified by winemaker Joe Shirley as best for the land—Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc.

Chef Jeffrey Starr has the enviable job of creating meals around Trinchero’s fine wines. Starr grew up in Palo Alto, California, and attended the University of California at Davis, where he received a B.A. in Agricultural Science. He worked in restaurant management for seven years after graduation, but ultimately decided he’d rather be behind the stove. Starr worked at Dakota’s restaurant in Dallas, and was on the opening team of Dallas’s exclusive Crescent Club. It was there that he met chef Mark Miller, who soon invited him to move to Santa Fe to work at Coyote Café. Starr’s next post was at the Malibu Adobe in Malibu, California. After consulting on restaurants around the country, Starr was asked by Jonathan Waxman to help on a restaurant project in the Napa Valley. He put down roots in the area, founding Starr Caterers. In 1996, Trinchero Family Estates, one of his clients, asked him to work as the winery’s full-time chef. Since his arrival, Starr has helped to create Trinchero’s Culinary Center at Zinfandel Ranch. Inside, Starr holds court at the chef’s table in the Center’s 2,100-square-foot kitchen.

Winemaker Joe Shirley has helped raise Trinchero’s Family Estates to their current level of prominence. Shirley was born in Long Beach, California, but grew up in the Napa Valley. After receiving his Master in Enology from U.C. Davis, Shirley started working at Sonoma-Cutrer. Shirley came to Trinchero in 1999, and he was promoted to winemaker in 2002. A member of the Guild of Sommeliers, Shirley is responsible for Trinchero Winery’s entire portfolio of wines.