Give your guests a memorable experience, whether it be an intimate picnic lunch for two or a catered wedding for hundreds of people, couple it with fine Napa Valley wines and you’ve created friends and customers for life.

“It’s all about the wine, but it’s also about the experience,” said Tom C. Davies, president of St. Helena’s V. Sattui Winery. “The wine is in the center, but surrounding it are all the elements around the wine.”

Each year, more than 200,000 people visit the winery, owned by Dario Sattui, the great-grandson of V. Sattui., Davies said. The winery remains busy, Davies added, because people still want to have fun and because V. Sattui is proud to welcome everyone, including families with children. “The kids can run around and we even welcome dogs on the picnic grounds,” Davies said.

Not everyone who visits Sattui tastes its wines, but a vast majority do. There are six tasting areas. On average, for every tasting, the winery is selling close to 2.5 bottles of wine and that number goes up during the holidays, Davies said.

Annual events at Sattui include weddings, happenings such as the Harvest Ball and private affairs for groups and companies. People are attracted to the winery by wine education sessions, tastings in a variety of settings, advice on food and wine pairings, a picnic grounds around the winery, a deli with fresh mozzarella, salads and sandwiches and a cheese counter with more than 200 cheeses, both foreign and domestic.

An Italian immigrant, Vittorio Sattui founded V. Sattui Winery in San Francisco’s North Beach area in 1885. The winery was shut down during Prohibition — but the family, including Dario, continued to live in the quarters above it. Because Vittorio lived to be 94 years old, Dario, who was born in 1941, got to know his great-grandfather and was fascinated by his stories and photos of the old winery.

After earning both a bachelor’s degree and an MBA, Sattui traveled in Europe for two years and returned to the United States in 1972. Three years later, he re-established his great-grandfather’s V. Sattui Winery — not in San Francisco, but on a 38-acre parcel in St. Helena.

The winery he created features three-foot-thick, hand-hewn stone walls, rustic timbers, chiseled archways and underground caves and cellars. It was designed to have the feel of a small European village. From the beginning, Sattui’s objective was to sell all of its wines directly to the consumer at the winery. Today, that includes sales through its Web site.

During a recent tour of the winery and grounds, Davies talked about its amenities. The winery is one of the few in Napa County that can host weddings, which it has done for 20 years. V. Sattui hosts 80 weddings annually.

‘Dream experience’

“It’s a great marketing tool,” Davies said. “A marriage here is an event that brings family and friends together for a dream experience.

“We work hard to pair the wines and food together to create a great experience and we encourage our guests to become part of the family,” he added, noting that those who attend weddings frequently become life-long fans, customers and friends of V. Sattui.

Other experiences are more commonplace. The winery welcomes everyone, without reservations, to come and taste its wines. It’s not unusual to see a family sitting at a picnic bench under massive oak trees enjoying a meal fresh from Sattui’s Italian marketplace, which offers delicacies ranging from crabcakes and mustard prawns to pastas, 15 different salads, three or four panninis and sandwiches made fresh in a kitchen overseen by executive chef Gerardo Sainato.

The marketplace also sells more than 200 cheeses, under cheesemonger Keith Idle, who celebrated his 25th anniversary at V. Sattui in July. “We’re noted for our cheese selection,” Davies said. “I wish more locals knew what we have for sale here.”

The marketplace also offers the makings for a European picnic — bread, cheese, fresh fruit, and, of course, a bottle of wine. On the weekends, barbecued oysters and pizzas from a wood-fired oven are for sale.

Visitors are welcome to wander through the winery, the marketplace, the main tasting room and the grounds.

First wine club

Davies said V. Sattui was the first winery to offer a wine club to its customers and the first to offer a private tasting room for club members with a bar manned by Jay Griffith, who has been with V. Sattui for a dozen years. Griffith’s tenure is not unusual — many of Sattui’s employees have been with the winery for a long time.

“That’s so invaluable, because our guests become our friends,” Davies said. “And then, they bring in their friends.”

The wine club’s membership numbers into the thousands. One opportunity extended to members is the opportunity to buy “futures,” which is red wine being aged in French oak barrels, at a 15 percent discount before it is bottled. If you buy a case of “future” wine, then when you visit the winery, you can taste from the barrel and see how the wine evolves and how it is aging in six months or after a year.

A private tasting room away from the hustle and bustle of the marketplace, gift shop and main tasting room, is the “Gold Room,” reserved for those customers who buy five cases of wine at one time. Reserve wines lie on their sides in cubbyholes in the Gold Room’s walls. Some of the library wines date more than 20 years and they are opened occasionally, often during a special event, including the Harvest Ball.

Davies said during V. Sattui’s years of operation, he has seen a second generation of customers coming to the winery. Some of those people haven’t grown up with wine being part of their lives; and he said it’s easy and affordable for them to learn about wine. V. Sattui’s classic tasting is $5 for five of 12 wines and $10 for a premium tasting, which may include vineyard-designated red wines.

V. Sattui has remained busy during these tough economic times.

“The reason is because of all these things, events, tastings and weddings,” Davies said. “The experience is fun and affordable. People still want to get out and still want to have fun.”