WASHINGTON, D.C. - The President's first State dinner, tonight at the White House, will feature the fruits of labor for the late Jimi Brooks, a Portland native and founder of Brooks Winery. 

Brooks' 2006 Ara Riesling - aged in Oregon's Willamette Valley - will be served along with the second, soup course at tonight's inaugural Obama administration State meal. Guests of honor are the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, and his wife, Mrs. Gursharan Kaur.

President Barack Obama told the Associated Press Tuesday that U.S. ties with India will be "one of the defining relationships" of the 21st century. The United States is India's largest trading partner.

"Our nations are two global leaders," Obama told the Associated Press, "driven not to dominate other nations but to build a future of security and prosperity for all nations."

About the winemaker
The founder of the Brooks Winery label is Jimi Brooks, who was born and raised in Portland. According to the winery's Web site, Brooks developed his passion for winemaking while working for the Deschamps Family, in the Beaujolais region of France. There, he says, he "learned one of the most valuable lessons in winemaking: the quality of any wine comes from the care taken in the vineyard."

Brooks returned to Oregon in 1996 and began working at WillaKenzie Estate in Oregon's Yamhill-Carlton wine region. He started the "Brooks Wines” label while still an assistant winemaker at WillaKenzie and oversaw production of 3,500 cases of Brooks-label wine.

Brooks died in 2004, at the age of 38, at his home in McMinnville, Ore. Industry insiders say continuing wine production after he died has been a labor of love: "Dozens of folks from the Oregon wine industry jumped in to keep his business going," said one.

A Brooks Winery in Amity, Ore., lives on.

About the Nov. 24 dinner
Many of those cases are being chilled Tuesday afternoon in the White House kitchen, waiting to be uncorked to serve roughly 300 guests expected for tonight's event. Among the expected guests are singer Jennifer Hudson, who will perform; CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta; actress Alfre Woodard; and actor Blair Underwood.

In a break from tradition, this 2009 State dinner was scheduled out of the White House and into a tent on the Capital's South Lawn. However, an Associated Press report notes "chilly, damp weather" that may move the dinner back indoors.

Obama said the U.S and India are natural allies. "We both recognize that our core goal is to achieve peace and security for all peoples in the region, not just one country or the other," he told the Associated Press.
     
- Associated Press Writer Foster Klug contributed information to this report


Related links:

• Watch the state dinner live
• The complete White House State Dinner Menu