Food & Drink: Three Cheers -- The wines, beers and spirits of Fritz Maytag are showcased at a Woodside Village Pub dinner, with food by fellow innovator Mark Sullivan Food & Drink: Three Cheers -- The wines, beers and spirits of Fritz Maytag are showcased at a Woodside Village Pub dinner, with food by fellow innovator Mark Sullivan (April 06, 2005)

By Renee Batti

Almanac News Editor

It's no secret that Woodside is home to an impressive number of innovators -- many of whom made fortunes on the strengths of their creative enterprise and achievement in the high-tech world.

So it seems fitting that two innovators in the world of food and drink should converge in the quiet rural town last week to give about 20 hungry and thirsty souls a taste of their uncommon achievements.

The Woodside Village Pub was the site of the event, a dinner shining the spotlight on Fritz Maytag, maker of beers, wines and spirits; and Village Pub chef Mark Sullivan, whose cuisine has put the restaurant on the map.

The son of the man who started the Maytag blue cheese enterprise in Newton, Iowa, and great-grandson of the founder of Maytag Appliances, Fritz Maytag III has gained fame blazing his own trail.

In 1965, he bought the old Anchor Brewing company in San Francisco, saving it from bankruptcy and essentially launching what would become the microbrewery craze in the United States.

Although he threw himself into the enterprise with determination and innovation, Mr. Maytag wasn't content to confine himself to the fermentation of hops and malt. Forty years after his rescue and rejuvenation of the brewery, he is also an accomplished maker of fine wine and artisan rye whiskey and gin.
'Showing the wine'

These items were the stars of the March 28 dinner, the latest in a series of winemaker dinners at the Village Pub. Andrew Green, the Pub's wine and spirits director, and chef Mark Sullivan put together a menu of wines and other beverages that Mr. Sullivan then built his food menu upon.

"These dinners are about showing the wine," says Mr. Sullivan while working in the kitchen, which is sizzling with the energy and focus needed to pull together all the ingredients for the "Fritz Maytag Dinner" later that evening.

For that event, the food was also called upon to highlight two varieties of Mr. Maytag's beer as well.

Mr. Green came up with the idea of featuring the Maytag line of libations after meeting Mr. Maytag at a James Beard Foundation awards dinner. Fritz Maytag was there to receive an award; Mr. Green and Mr. Sullivan were there to prepare a course for the dinner.

The Village Pub had been honored by the Beard foundation the year before as one of the top 10 new restaurants in the country -- less than one year after new owner Tim Stannard reopened the Pub with Mr. Sullivan as the top chef.

"I knew of Fritz Maytag because of his contribution to food, wine, beer and spirits for many years," Mr. Green says. And that contribution, he adds, "is truly remarkable."

He and Mr. Sullivan tasted a range of Mr. Maytag's York Creek Vineyards wines, from the Spring Mountain district of Napa Valley, then decided on a selection that set the chef's imagination in motion. They also decided on before-dinner martinis and manhattans using the guest of honor's spirits, and two varieties of Anchor beer.

The choice of one particular wine was especially fitting for a Woodside event: The 2001 and 2002 cabernet sauvignons originated in the "Horseshoe" vineyard that Mr. Maytag planted with cuttings from La Questa vines -- abandoned vines originally planted in Woodside in the 1880s by Emmet Rixford, who reputedly imported his cuttings from Bordeaux.
Peninsula years

It was the trees and forests of the western Peninsula that so enamored Fritz Maytag years ago, when he studied at Stanford from 1955 to '64.

After one year at the university, sick of dorm life, he moved off campus, first living in Palo Alto and Menlo Park, then migrating west: Portola Valley, La Honda, Skylonda.

"I came to have a deep appreciation of that flora, of the forest," he explains. Although in those years he wasn't able to put names to the many tree species surrounding him, "I loved the looks of them, the smell of them."

In 1968 he bought his Spring Mountain site in Napa Valley, on which he has since planted 125 acres in vines. He says he was drawn to that land in large part because of the flora and forests. There are at least 24 tree species native to the land, he notes, and his wine labels depict many of them.

When he was replanting some of the existing vines, he remembered that in the mid-1960s, he was "stunned by the quality" of 1936 and '38 cabernet sauvignons from the now-defunct La Questa winery that a friend had recommended. That's when he headed to Woodside, returning with enough cuttings to establish his Horseshoe vineyard block.

At first, Mr. Maytag sold his grapes to other winemakers, but about 10 years ago, he decided to produce his own wine, and now uses facilities near his Potrero Hill brewery for his winemaking operation.

A point of pride for Mr. Maytag is the old-fashioned, hands-on techniques used in his enterprises. He finds the traditional methods of making beer, wine and spirits "charming" -- a word he uses often.

Ever the experimenter and adventurer, Mr. Maytag is on the verge of introducing another product as early as next week: his first bottling of grappa.
A palatable pairing

After cocktails were served and lingered over at the winemaker dinner last week, Mr. Maytag gave a talk and slide presentation giving an overview of his local operations as well as the blue cheese company, which he and about 11 family members still own and control.

The presentation set in motion the kitchen staff, who served up Anchor Steam beer with small bowls of popcorn, "buttered" with Maytag blue cheese. And after that, Anchor Summer Beer was paired with cracked crab with drawn butter and Meyer lemon aioli.

To complement the first wine on the menu, a 2001 cabernet franc, the chef chose lentils and trotters -- shredded meat from pigs' feet that was wrapped in caul before it was cooked.

Mr. Sullivan says his choices in pairing food with wine are often intuitive. Perhaps the success of his intuitive choices can be determined by whether diners asked for seconds on the wine. They did. Often.

That might also have had something to do with the wine. Mr. Maytag says he's especially proud of the cabernet franc. Although 100 percent cabernet francs are quite uncommon, 2001 was the right vintage for an unblended wine from this grape, he says.

For the back-to-back tasting of the two cabernet sauvignons from La Questa clones, Mr. Sullivan served up seared spiced duck and truffled potatoes with a bergamot orange sauce. "There was an orange zest quality to the wine, and I wanted to bring that forward with the food," he explains.

York Creek 2002 port was served with Maytag blue cheese, and a ginger porter cake sweetened the end of the meal.

"I would say the meal was just exquisite," Mr. Maytag declared later that week.
Winemaker dinners

Mr. Green says the Village Pub is now hosting monthly winemaker dinners, with a hiatus in November and December. The restaurant started with about half a dozen in 2003, but increased them as they became more popular.

On May 9, the featured winery will be Juslyn, also of the Napa Valley Spring Mountain district.

For information about the dinners, call 851-9888 or log on at thevillagepub.net.
Information

For information about Anchor Brewery, including the availability of tours, log on at anchorbrewing.com. For information about York Creek Vineyards, log on at yorkcreek.com.

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