Our City Tonight recently sat down with the CEO of St. Supery Estate Vineyards and Winery. Emma Swain has been the chief executive officer for over 15 years producing one hundred percent estate grown wines in the Napa Valley.

OCT: In the wine industry, everybody recognizes the name St. Supery, and your winery has certainly set itself apart by having the Napa Green Certification. Can you please tell us about this distinction?

ES: We first became certified in the vineyard in 2008 and in the winery in 2012. What is really special about the Napa Green Certification is it’s like an umbrella over sustainable farming, biodynamic farming, and organic farming. Certification encompasses not just how we farm but how our carbon footprint impacts. It is about how we recycle, how we treat our community, and how we treat our people. So, in reality it’s looking at the total picture. Obviously, we farm sustainably, but it also takes into account how we recycle at the winery. We compost all of our stems and seeds from the wine making process, and we also recycle all of our water from the process. We are 94 percent solar to offset our power. It’s thinking about all of these things as well as, what we can do to give back to our community.

OCT: That’s incredible, especially since the word green has been overused for so many years, but your company is really committed to doing it the right way and you’re definitely one to follow. Emma, you’ve had over 25 years experience in the agricultural wine industry. Please tell us a little more about that.

ES: I love the wine business. I went to school at UC Davis and I drove through Napa Valley on the way home and I thought “how do I get to live here, I need to live here”. And that was kind of the focus for me and my husband. When we were dating in college we would go up to Napa Valley. 

When I started my career after college, I worked in the Bay Area in financial consulting. Again, I thought “how do I get back to Napa Valley”? And sure, enough one day someone I worked for asked me if I knew anyone who would want to be a controller at a winery? Immediately I said “take me” and that’s how it began, how I moved to Napa Valley. 

OCT: That’s a great story. And we do have to ask you—and we realize you have many wine choices but, do you have a favourite wine?

ES: You know, they’re all my children and they’re all very good and delicious children, but I do I love our Sauvignon Blanc. I also love our Cabernet Sauvignon. I tend to have a lot of Sauvignon Blanc in our house because I cook a lighter style of recipes. I haven’t eaten red meat since I was in fifth grade, so I tend to lean towards well-balanced and fresh wines with good acidity. I do think both our red wines and our white wines encompass that.

OCT: Speaking of pairing, can you go through the wines that you brought with you today and give us a few food and wine pairings for them?

ES: The Napa Valley estates Sauvignon Blanc is delicious. It’s fresh and lively so you can have it with a beautiful green salad with asparagus sprinkled with pinenuts and goat cheese and maybe a drizzle of balsamic. Of course, it will compliment oysters or anything fresh and lively.

The second pairing with one of our white wines that has a touch of barrel fermentation, offers a bit broader range of food pairing. I would suggest truffle popcorn, french fries, pasta dishes, or seafood. We are all about sustainable seafood at St. Supery so throw in a crabcake, some halibut with some greens on top.

OCT: You’re making us hungry just thinking about it but first, let’s talk about the two reds that you’ve brought today.

ES: OK, the Napa Valley Estate Elu is the most versatility of all our red wines. It has great balance and great length. The tannins are beautifully textured and they’re very soft and fine grained. I would pair this with black garlic and miso salmon or you can have it with a beautiful roasted chicken. 

Other people in my household enjoy it with a pork chop or steak, but personally I would lean towards a vegetarian lasagna or a great mushroom dish. The second red wine, the Dollarhide Cabernet is a really bold wine and I tend to drink this with a little mignonette or a nice dry aged cheese or any beautiful cheese pairing of your choice. As well, of course, it is the classic steak wine and it’s great with braised mushrooms.

OCT: That all sounds incredible. Before we close, is there anything new on the horizon that you can share with us?

ES: There are so many new things. We’re installing new barns to take care of our electric tractors and adding more solar implementations. We also have a brand-new wine; we bought a new vineyard last year. We bought a Sauvignon Blanc Vineyard in Rutherford. 

We grow about nine and half percent of all the Sauvignon Blanc in Napa Valley. The new wine is coming out in just a few weeks and it’s a Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc. A portion of the proceeds from that wine will go to support *Fed by Blue, which is a wonderful organization promoting sustainable seafood. You can see the new PBS series Hope in the Water which we are the official wine for.

To watch the video interview in full richmondsentinel.ca/videos

*St. Supéry Estate Vineyards & Winery is pleased to be the official wine partner of Fed By Blue and the upcoming docuseries Hope In The Water, premiering on PBS. Fed by Blue is a science-based, non-profit initiative established by a collective of culinary artists, marine conservationists, sustainability experts, and humanitarians.