White House to serve Napa Valley sparkling wine at South Korea state dinner
A wine from Calistoga’s Schramsberg Vineyards will be served at Wednesday’s White House state dinner honoring South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife.
“We’re obviously thrilled to play our small part,” said Schramsberg President Hugh Davies, whose parents Jack and Jamie Davies revived the historic property that Schramsberg sits on and utilize traditional techniques to make their bottles of brut, blanc de blancs, rosé and other sparkling wines.
On Monday, the first lady unveiled the menu for the dinner, which includes a 2019 Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs sparkling wine that will be poured during the dessert course.
As reported by The Associated Press Tuesday, the state dinner’s menu was created by White House chefs and Korean American celebrity chef Edward Lee and includes a crab cake appetizer, braised beef short ribs topped with sorghum-glazed carrots atop a dollop of grits for the main course, and a “deconstructed“ banana split made of lemon bar ice cream, caramelized bananas, fresh berries, a mint gingersnap cookie crumble and a drizzle of caramel sauce infused with fermented soybean paste.
In addition to the Schramsberg dessert paring, TheHill.com reported that a 2020 Ferdinand Albariño, a white wine from Lodi, will be served with the crab cakes, and a 2020 Januik merlot from Columbia Valley, Washington, will be served with the main course.
According to Davies, this event marks the second time Schramsberg has been served for dignitaries at the White House during Biden’s administration, after the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in December. Davies added that this marks the 10th presidential administration to serve Schramsberg at an event.
Wednesday’s state dinner will be the second of Biden’s administration. The first was in honor of French President Emmanuel Macron in December. At the dinner, several local wines were featured as well as a Humboldt County cheese.
Blanc de Blancs (white from whites), made from chardonnay, was the first wine Schramsberg produced in 1965 and was America’s first commercially produced Chardonnay-based brut sparkling wine.
