Rudd Oakville Estate

Bougainvillea ascends to the railing of a walkway leading down from the Rudd Oakville Estate winery.

Rudd Oakville Estate winemaker Patrick Sullivan (in dark blue) hosts a dinner party amidst gardens designed by Thomas Hobbs. In the Olive Garden, taking his cue from the silvery-leaved olive trees, Hobbs wove together gray-green fragrant herbs like Santolina, Teucrium fruticans and ‘Tuscan Blue’ rosemary with dahlias and Phormium.

The fountain at the entrance to the reception area on the Rudd estate is a copper vat once used to make chocolate. The Rudds found it at a horse ranch in Colorado and were able to incorporate it into the design of their dream winery. The iron pots on either side of the front door are from a salvage yard in San Francisco — a lucky find by Leslie Rudd. Hobbs planted them with tree ferns.

Sullivan discusses the estate’s vines with fellow Napa Valley vintner Juelle Fisher.

A curvilinear wall was built from stones excavated when the original vines were dug up in 1998. Leslie Rudd was inspired by the vineyards in Burgundy that are surrounded by walls. “I always thought that if someday I got a winery, I’d want to design the grounds something like they do in France,” he says.

The owners added Rose Tarlow dining chairs from a previous home to the winery’s terrace, where the party kicks off.

Mini BLTs are among the tasty canapés served by the St. Helena steakhouse PRESS, another of the Rudd’s holdings, during cocktail hour.

Hobbs used the olive trees — planted prior to his involvement in the project by designer Roger Warner — as anchors for his plan. The plants in the gardens, including bronzy Libertia peregrinans, shrubby Teucrium fruticans, blue-flowered Plumbago auriculata, gray-green Santolina chamaecyparissus and rosemary ‘Tuscan Blue’ and ‘Benenden Blue’, came primarily from San Marcos Growers in Santa Barbara, Monrovia in Southern California and smaller nurseries in Northern California.

Five years after the initial installation by Hobbs, who regularly visited and worked on the gardens through 2007, the strolling gardens have blended seamlessly with the Olive Garden into a unified space created for gatherings small and large.

Chef Ryan Fancher serves entrees paired with Rudd estate-grown produce. The table is in a clearing beneath a canopy of olive trees, backed by Hobbs’ mini strolling gardens and a sea of vineyards in the distance.

Rudd’s 2003 Oakville Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is one of winemaker Patrick Sullivan’s choices to pour for this evening’s dinner being held in the garden.

Produce, such as the apples on these espaliered trees, is grown on the estate to support PRESS restaurant’s farm-to-table philosophy.

Oversize urns are made from concrete by LUNAFORM, a company based in Maine. The dining table is just to the left of this olive tree.

Hydrangeas grace each place setting on a table set to blend with the garden’s overall color palette.

Dinner guests are Napa food- and wine-industry insiders who all enjoy a sneak preview of Rudd’s major ’08 release, the ’05 Oakville Estate Proprietary Red, which scored 94 points from noted wine critic Robert Parker.

The final course offers a pairing of Rudd’s ’05 Edge Hill Port with local cheeses selected by Dean & DeLuca, St. Helena executive chef Benjamin DuBois (at far right).