Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
The staff at Byington Winery gets in the spirit early for the Mardi Gras party scheduled for March 3.
Byington Winery hosts a catered Mardi Gras party
Cajun, Creole dishes highlight the festivities
By Suzanne Cristallo
"Hey, Mister, throw me some beads!" The plea is familiar to New Orleans Mardi Gras celebrants, who already are parading the streets in anticipation of "Fat Tuesday," the centuries-old day of fun before Lent.
Los Gatos' Byington Winery is planning its own Mardi Gras evening March 3 featuring food, wine, live music, costumes and probably some bead throwing. This is the second pre-Lenten celebration the winery has held for some 250 guests in its rambling stone building in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Guests of "Mardi Gras 2000" start their buffet feast with Cajun Island salad and Cajun honey mustard dressing. It's followed by chicken and sausage gumbo, the Creole stew-like dish of many vegetables based on a distinctively rich, dark roux thickened with okra. It comes with sweet New Orleans French bread and two glasses of wine, followed by dessert. The caterer is A. Angela Marie of Los Gatos. "It'll be fun," Brissenden says. "It's not a formal, sit-down dinner. It's a free-for-all," she adds, laughing.
The 17,000-square-foot building constructed in the Italian style with split block graystone topped with red tile roofing will offer startling acoustics for the live, New Orleans-style dance band.
Guests will be seated both in an upstairs suite of rooms furnished with Italian antiques, a fireplace and crystal chandelier, as well as among the large wine tanks and barrels that the rooms overlook. Prizes will be awarded for the "most outrageous and creative" Mardi Gras masks.
"It's on its way to becoming an annual event," says Cheryle Byington Brissenden, whose parents purchased the 82-acre property some 40 years ago that the winery now occupies. Brissenden organizes monthly events the winery holds to draw wine enthusiasts up the five-plus miles of winding Bear Creek Road to what was once a Christmas tree farm. It's now home to nine acres of hillside vineyards planted with pinot noir, considered one of the two grape aristocrats from which fine red wines are made.
Brissenden, 53, is vice president, overseeing events and what she refers to as "mopping up" at the winery founded by her parents, Bill and Mary Byington. The Byingtons bought the land as an investment, using it for tree-growing and goat farming, but with the idea that some day it would be divided among their three children, who might someday live there.
"David Bruce--the vintner across the road--always wanted us to plant grapes," Brissenden notes. They did, finally, in 1990, sustaining the business through the difficult growing years with the family steel heat-treating plant in Santa Clara. "This winery is run on love and the heat-treating plant," Brissenden laughs. "It was also the carrot that brought me home."
Reservations for the 6:30 p.m. event must be made by February 29. Cost is $18.95 per person.
Byington Winery, 21850 Bear Creek Road, Los Gatos. Open daily 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Call for reservations and wine tasting information 408.354.1111.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
