Sonoma entrepreneur stars in Amazon wine series

With a face made for television and ebullient charm, Garrett Sathre is ready for his close-up.|

As if running a wine touring company, a pop-up event company, and a new restaurant weren’t enough, Sonoma entrepreneur Garrett Sathre is taking on television now, too.

Sathre, who founded West Wine Tours, Hand Made Events, and the almost-ready-to-open West-Handmade Burgers with his wife, Nicole Benjamin, will appear in a new series called “It Starts With Wine,” premiering on Amazon Prime Video on Jan. 4. The show, a Wine Enthusiast Media original production, pairs winemakers and chefs at various international locales, and walks the viewer through each expert’s unique approach to food and wine.

But it wasn’t a gig Sathre sought out.

He was minding his own business, just living life, when an agent from Wine Ram Productions, which co-produced the show, cold-called him. “He said, ‘You know, I’m looking on your Instagram, and you’re the most Northern California guy I’ve ever seen. You cook, you surf, you forage for mushrooms… Can you send me a bio? And, really, how good can you cook?’” Sathre recounted.

He sent off the requested CV, and months and months of radio silence ensued. Sathre was surprised when his phone rang again.

This time, the agent wanted to know what Sathre knew about biodynamics, and he had to confess to just a rudimentary understanding.

“’Well, you’re about to learn a whole lot more,’” Sathre said the guy promised, announcing that he’d had been selected to co-star in the only episode of the show set in America.

Episode 1 is staged against a Uruguayan backdrop, with acclaimed “flying winemaker” Alberto Antonini paired with restauranteur Francis Mallmann. Viewers travel to Zapata, Argentina, in episode 2, as San Francisco emergency room doctor/Argentine winery owner Laura Catena joins forces with chef Deborah De Corral.

Episode 3 is “a love letter to Northern California,” Sathre said, in which he prepares food to complement wines from Bonterra Organic Vineyards, a Mendocino County winery named “American Winery of the Year” by Wine Enthusiast magazine in 2016. All three episodes of the docuseries will be released simultaneously on Jan. 4, for viewers’ “binge-watching pleasure,” according to Wine Enthusiast Media.

As promised, the focus of Sathre’s episode is biodynamics, which Bonterra winemaker Joseph Brinkley defends as “not as crazy as it seems. It’s not witchcraft, it’s not nonsense,” Brinkley said, packing cow manure into cow horns that he buries - along with chamomile-stuffed animal intestine - in the soil of his vineyards. “It’s life fertilizing life.”

Sathre, 35, who’s been in the food business his whole adult life, has a natural approach that dovetailed well with Brinkley’s. “I can cook, but what’s more, I can go get it,” he said. “The whole journey surrounding the food is what’s exciting to me. I have relationships with the farms, and believe in keeping it simple. Put the freshest thing in season on a plate, and don’t overwork it. I love to cook beautiful, simple food.”

Sathre’s episode of “It Starts With Wine” aims to capture the relaxed Northern California zeitgeist. “We eat fish tacos with headlamps on after surfing at the beach. They asked me to show them my honeyholes,” Sathre said. “I live for Dillon Beach, I love the Russian River. I loved showing off my favorite spots.” The food he prepares - flatbreads dotted with local produce, oysters from Tomales Bay - is a manifestation of those places.

Being television, however, Sathre’s episode took a few liberties with the absolute truth. “I was supposed to cook food that I found or caught on my way up to Bonterra, and on one trip I made a wild boar burger, but I definitely did not kill that boar,” Sathre said.

Filming was spread over about four months, and wrapped nearly a year-and-a-half ago, Sathre said. The result is 45 minutes of slick, high-production television that conveys Northern California in a warm, honeyed light.

Sathre, standing in a glow of his own with three young kids and three thriving businesses, expects that his foray into visual media may continue. “Just in the last month, I’ve had a talent manager reach out to me, and I’m planning on getting something together to show to the tourism board to see if they might want to be involved,” Sathre said.

With a face made for television and naturally ebullient charm, it’s not hard to imagine “It Starts With Wine” as Sathre’s debut. “I really enjoyed it,” he said. “There’s so much more that I would love to do.”

Contact Kate at kate.williams@sonomanews.com.

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