Morgan Hill
– We waited in line to bottle some wine.
With the annual grape harvest complete, Guglielmo Winery’s
”
cork equity
”
gala served as a lively celebration of this fall’s successful
South Valley grape harvest. While a few wineries had lower yields
overall, they were optimistic about the vintage’s quality.
Morgan Hill – We waited in line to bottle some wine.
With the annual grape harvest complete, Guglielmo Winery’s “cork equity” gala served as a lively celebration of this fall’s successful South Valley grape harvest. While a few wineries had lower yields overall, they were optimistic about the vintage’s quality.
More than 300 people came to the beautiful Tuscan-style winery to fill and label their own bottles of wine in a tribute to the winery’s past. They also got to sample rich red wine, cheeses and freshly-grilled Italian sausage.
I signed up for two 1.5 liters of the Petite Sirah and queued up with other wine lovers, listening to the sweet-stringed Italian songs of mandolin player Carmelo Sarconi.
After my two bottles were corked, I laid them gently on a table and soon had them proudly labeled (one label accidentally placed upside down): “Calvacade, Central Coast Cellar Red, Red Table Wine.”
Later I talked with winemaker George Guglielmo. He informed me 720 gallons of wine were sold at Saturday’s cork equity event.
“The yield was down a little bit, but the quality is very good,” he told me about his overall harvest. “But overall, the quality of the wine is exceptional.”
Guglielmo said he was particularly proud of this year’s Zinfandel and Petite Sirah. They’ll be ready for purchase in two years, he said.
In phone interviews, other South Valley winemakers also gave their various verdicts of this autumn’s harvest.
Gino Fortino, owner and winemaker at Hecker Pass’s Fortino Winery said: “The crop came in lighter this year, but it’s a pretty nice quality.” His merlot wines will be exceptional this year, he said.
At the Solis Winery in Gilroy, winemaker David Vanni said October’s rain had little effect on his grape quality. About 90 percent of the crop came in before the storms hit. The rain did make a mess during the picking though.
“It made a real mud hole for us,” Vanni said. “We played in a lot of mud.”
Solis had planned to bring out some of its 2004 wines priced between $10 and $14 before Thanksgiving. The wines include muscats, rieslings and vino roseo (blush wines).
“These are sweeter wines. They’re nicer for people who don’t like reds,” Vanni said. “They work well with turkey.”
San Benito County Wine also turned out very fine. Vineyard owner and winemaker Joseph Gimelli at the Pietra Santa Winery – in Cienega Valley south of Hollister – said this year’s yields were lower than normal, but that’s because he cut back the fruit on the vine during the summer. This concentrated the sugars in the grapes.
“The quality (of wine) is one of the greatest years ever,” he said enthusiastically.
He expects to make about 30,000 cases of wine including merlot, cabernet, sangiovese, chardonnay, pinot grigio and old vine zinfandel.
