2017 Holiday Open House

Come drink some wine with us and pick out the perfect gift!

December 14th
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

26891 Caddy Court
Davis, CA 95618

Our worthy Cabernet’s and Pinots are stately, complex, and thoughtful gifts for any wine lover. And in addition to giving a sophisticated and delicious present, gifting a bottle of Senders comes with knowing you helped give a child a new smile, tying in perfectly with the season’s atmosphere of giving.

What We Pair With Our Thanksgiving Dinner

Pinot + Turkey

Wondering what to pair your good times with this holiday season? Add our Pinot Noir and put some smiles on the table this Thanksgiving.

Many tables feature a bottle of pinot on Thanksgiving Day; pinot noir is certainly our favorite compliment to a big roasted turkey. Here are our top four reasons for loving this popular holiday pairing.

Balanced Complexity & A Lighter Body

When compared to many other reds, pinots are lighter in intensity. This is a great quality when pairing wine with lighter meats like fish, foul, and lamb. You can get the same level of complexity, without the overpowering tannins of a full-bodied Cabernet.

Turkey, being a more delicate meat, requires a more delicate pairing– that’s where the more nuanced and lighter flavors of Pinot sing.

One reason for the lighter-bodied nature of pinots is their lower tannin content. Tannins can add complexity and intensity to a wine, and are helpful when pairing with equally intense entrees like steak but can drown out the flavor of the quintessential Thanksgiving dish.

Red Fruit Flavors

Why should red fruit flavors matter? Cranberry sauce ring any bells?

While we wouldn’t compare our wine to cranberry sauce (even if you do pick up a hint of cranberry), many pinots have similar, albeit far more subtle, red fruit flavors.

While we love all our pinots, our 2012 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir has notes of cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and pomegranate and our 2013 Carneros Pinot Noir, on the other hand, has hints of strawberry, cherry, and raspberry– a great pair for the holidays.

Acidity

A wine’s acidity adds tartness to a wine. Though the level of acidity is up to the individual winemaker, pinots typically have just enough acidity to bring out the turkey’s juices without upsetting the balance. The right amount of tartness is delicious with the subtle flavor of the meat.

Versatility

Partly because they have less tannins, pinots tend to be good pairings for many different types of food. The Senders pairs pinot with anything from pizza to salmon. As for sides, Karen Senders recommends pinot with any kind of creamed vegetables, like creamed corns or brussel sprouts. Since pinot is so versatile, it goes with many foods that appear on your Thanksgiving table.

Grab Some Pinot

A Wine for Any Season or Occasion

Crisp and refreshing, this wine is the ideal aperitif for an evening spent around the BBQ with friends and family. Hints of ripe tropical fruit and citrus are balanced by fresh crushed rock giving this wine a flavorful but light body. Its fruity aroma and crisp minerality make it a great match for pan-seared scallops and more challenging pairings since it holds up well against acidic dishes– even some asian cuisine.

Coming from the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley, this wine enjoyed an ideal season– one of the many reasons for its aromatic, balanced flavors. As much as we love our Pinots, sometimes it’s a bit too warm for red so we turn to this as our sure-to-please wine at the dinner table or around a fire pit.

Recommended serving temperature 45-50°F.

Get yours today

Dr. Senders on Good Day Sacramento | Surgical Trips

Doctor Senders as featured on Good Day Sacramento’s “Senders Wines Mission”

 

Dr. Senders Turns Water into Wine with Our New Virtual Reality Experience

Announcing the Senders Wines
Virtual Reality Experience

Virtual Vino Venture

the science of perception at it’s finest

Dr. Senders has done it again! His intimate knowledge of human perception of flavor has now yielded one of the greatest breakthroughs in VR tech: virtual flavor perception.

Wearing Senders Wines V³ Flavor Goggles, you can now enjoy wine with all of the benefits– and none of the downsides. Calories? None. Alcohol? Nope. Hydration? Yes. Flavor? You betcha!

With our patented Flavorceptor™ technology, we are able to trick your retronasal receptors into a delicious waking fantasy of flavor.


Available starting today, April 1st, 2017, the Senders Wines V³ Flavor Goggles can be yours for only $899.99.

That being said, with this new angle on the market of virtual flavor reality, we’re proud to announce the newest member of the Senders, Inc. family of companies:

Based in Borås, Norway, the hometown of one of our engineers, the operations should not interfere with our efforts to bring you handmade, single-vineyard wines from Napa and Sonoma.


In all reality, Happy April Fools. None of this is true.

Relax a bit and enjoy some of our wine. Nothing can compare with the real thing, made by an artist, and aged with great care.

Purchase a Bottle Today

Take a Sip and Save a Lip!

Join Us for Our 10-Year Anniversary & 2015 Release Pig Roast!

Sunday, October 4th  from 2pm to 5pm

The Oaks at El Macero Country Club
44571 Clubhouse Drive
El Macero, CA 95618

Join us for tastings from ten years of award winning wines produced by Dr. Craig Senders, paired with flamenco music and a decadent menu by El Macero’s Chef Rachel…

  • Whole Roasted Pig with four sauces
  • Cotija Cheese, Shredded Cabbage & Carrots, Pickled Radish & Onions
  • Corn Tortillas, Sopes, Tostada Shells
  • Elote – Grilled Corn with Aioli
  • Grilled Vegetable Skewers
Representatives from the Shriners HospitalFaces of Tomorrow and Operation Restore Hope will be present to receive checks from Senders Wines with a Cause to provide free cleft lip and palate surgeries to underserved populations.

Ticket acts as a $20 coupon toward purchase of $100 or more, excluding specials.  A limited number of tickets may be available at the door for $45.

Remember: Wine Club Members attend for free – time to pick up your fall wine club selection! 

Senders Wines Featured on KOVR

Watch the video on CBS Sacramento (sacramento.cbslocal.com).

They call them wines with a cause. A UC Davis doctor and his wife have turned their winemaking hobby into a growing business.

Doctor Craig and Karen Senders’ converted garage stall is more than a wine cellar, it’s a winemaking cellar. The couple has been dabbling in vino since the late ‘90s. They went commercial and created Senders Wines in 2005.
“Right now we make about 500 cases of wine a year. I’d love to be about 3,000 cases of wine a year,” said Dr. Craig Senders, winemaker and owner of Senders Wines.

“It finally occurred to us, let’s combine them. Let’s take the money that we make from the wine and give it to charities that help kids that have my passion, which are kids with congenital deformities of the face,” he said.
One-hundred percent of the profits from Senders Wines go to surgical outreach organizations. Craig has made dozens of trips to third-world countries, giving people life-changing cleft palate and lip surgeries they cannot get on their own.

“He loves what he does. He loves helping. He’ll say when he gets back from these trips that he’s getting more out of these surgical outreaches than what these kids do,” said Karen Senders.

One in 600 kids in the U.S. is born with cleft palates. Craig fixes those as well, but he says his work overseas takes on a new meaning.

“In America when you work as a surgeon, it’s always contaminated by money and insurance and rules and administrators and all this stuff,” said Craig. “Over there, all those rules are gone. They come in, you’re gonna do your best to take care of that child. And it feels so good.”

Watch the video on CBS Sacramento (sacramento.cbslocal.com).

Winemaker’s Dinner @ Preserve in Winters

Tuesday, April 28th @ Preserve Public House in Winters

200 Railroad Ave, Winters, CA 95694

6:00pm Social Hour
7:00pm Dinner

We’re very excited to invite you to a winemaker’s dinner at Preserve Public house– one of Yolo County’s newest eateries focusing on highlighting the artistry involved with creating fresh, house made fare and offering seasonal delicacies.  You are sure to find something one-of-a-kind at Preserve.Their farm-to-fork focus on local, quality ingredients is the perfect match for our wines. Both the wine and food served at the dinner has been prepared for you with a great deal of care.Tickets are available for purchase through the Cal Aggie Alumni Association who has organized this event and is offering a discount to both CAAA and our wine club members.~  • ~Purchase Tickets Here
$90 per person / $75 per wine club or Cal Aggie Alumni Association Member
Purchase tickets no later than Friday, April 24. No refunds.
(Wine Club members should purchase tickets as CAAA members for the discount)

MENU

1st Course

Scallop Crudo, fried Brussels sprouts, kumquat syrup, and lemon
w/ 2013 Sauvignon Blanc

2nd Course

Crispy Pork & Spring Pea Soup
w/ 2011 Carneros Las Brisas Pinot Noir

3rd Course

Braised Short Rib, fresh corn polenta, & grilled green onion
w/ 2005 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

4th Course

House made truffles & red wine soaked strawberries crème anglaise
w/ 2011 Yolo County Petite Sirah Dessert Wine

~ ~ ~

Purchase Tickets Here
$90 per person / $75 per wine club or Cal Aggie Alumni Association Member
Purchase tickets no later than Friday, April 24. No refunds.

(Wine Club members should purchase tickets as CAAA members for the discount)

Fall Releases Win Big at SF Chronicle Wine Competition

We’re proud of our wines– and with good reason. In honor of our recent awards, we’re offering free shipping on a case or more!

Our 2011 Carneros Pinot Noir won a bronze medal

The 2012 Sonoma Coast Pinot is easily one of our staff’s favorite wines for food. The enticing aroma leads to a bright cherry juice that is joined by a hints of raspberry, blackberry, and pomegranate– giving this wine a complex and light flavor ideal for intense contemplation or easy-going enjoyment. The complex combination of fruit flavors ends in a lasting finish that just doesn’t let go.

The Sonoma Coast appellation is one of my favorites for Pinot. The coastal breeze is the key ingredient to keep the fruit nice and cool through the night and first half of the day, letting this subtle grape brood in the dark.

(Buy it here)

Our 2012 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir was awarded a silver medal

The 2012 Sonoma Coast Pinot is easily one of our staff’s favorite wines for food. The enticing aroma leads to a bright cherry juice that is joined by a hints of raspberry, blackberry, and pomegranate– giving this wine a complex and light flavor ideal for intense contemplation or easy-going enjoyment. The complex combination of fruit flavors ends in a lasting finish that just doesn’t let go.

The Sonoma Coast appellation is one of my favorites for Pinot. The coastal breeze is the key ingredient to keep the fruit nice and cool through the night and first half of the day, letting this subtle grape brood in the dark.

(Buy it here)

2014 Fall Release Party – Tickets Available Now!

With another Harvest (and an earthquake!) behind us comes the release of small lot, hand crafted, barrel aged wines. We will be releasing two Pinot Noirs this fall, one each from 2011 and 2012, to continue their mission of funding global surgical outreaches.

Winemaker, owner, and UC Davis Surgeon Dr. Craig Senders, is always excited to show off his award-winning wines, but merging his two worlds has always been important. “Just like surgery, winemaking is a delicate process– especially when it comes to Pinot.”

Our 2011 Pinot Noir is made made from grapes at Francis Mahoney’s Las Brisas Vineyard in Carneros and their 2012 comes from the similarly cool Sonoma Coast. Senders Wines’ 2010 Las Brisas Pinot Noir won two gold medals: one at the Orange County Wine Competition and one at the Riverside International Wine Competition.

“We’ve also got a secret release that we’ll be announcing at our release party, and this one is made with fruit from Yolo County,” says Karen Senders. “While Pinots prefer colder climates, there are other grapes that do marvelously in this county.”

The event will be held at the El Macero Country Club (44571 Clubhouse Dr, Davis, CA 95618) and will take place from 3pm-6pm. We will be pouring its new Pinots as well as select wines from our library like our 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve and our inaugural white wine, 2013 Sauvignon Blanc. Their wines will be accompanied by hors d’oeuvres and live music from the UC Davis Jazz Trio.

Buy tickets here.