Morgan Hill
– Mike Sampognaro knew nothing about making wine eight months
ago, but he was passionate about keeping his family closely
knit.
Morgan Hill – Mike Sampognaro knew nothing about making wine eight months ago, but he was passionate about keeping his family closely knit.
Sampognaro, a 64-year-old semi-retired San Jose businessman, purchased Morgan Hill’s Pedrizzetti Winery in April. He wanted to provide a bigger home for his daughter’s growing family and a home for himself and his wife. While looking at properties in Morgan Hill, he and his daughter found the 94-year-old winery for sale on San Pedro Avenue.
After mulling it over, the family decided to pool resources and take the plunge into the wine business, hoping to earn enough to cover the mortgage payments on the 10-acre piece of land.
“Originally we were looking for some property that had two homes,” said Regina Simmons, Sampognaro’s 41-year-old daughter who lives with her husband and four children at the winery. “Nothing met our needs and we were actually looking to start (building homes) from scratch. Then we found the winery that had homes on it already and a business – a big plus – and we thought hopefully we’d get some money out of it.”
Big profits haven’t arrived yet. The winery was operating at a minimal level when the family bought it. Plus, there’s the challenge of learning a new ball game.
“Every business has a learning curve,” Sampognaro said. “And I didn’t know too much about wine.”
But Sampognaro is nothing if not versatile.
He is semi-retired from half a dozen careers, everything from manufacturing plastics to software engineering. He even owned a Goodyear tire shop. Now he is fine-tuning his wine making skills in a multi-billion dollar industry that continues to grow.
“Coming from a machine background, I had a pretty good handle on how to run and repair equipment,” he said. “But one thing I had to learn was, how small a batch of grapes I could process? I thought I had to do 10 tons at a time, but you can really do one ton at a time.”
The winery’s production facility includes five fermenters – tanks designated for fermenting the wine after the crush – and machinery to clean, de-stem and press the grapes. Bottling machines are also present.
A vineyard is no longer part of the operation.
While the winery no longer grows grapes, it remains a production and storage facility with a capacity to make 1,000 cases a day and store 300,000 gallons.
Its brands include Merlot, Petite Syrah, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and a selection of fruit wines.
The business revolves on wine making, aging finished wines for other companies, running the La Fenice tasting room and gift shop, storing bottled wine and hosting weddings and events.
“The most I’ve learned is how many regulations there are,” said 25-year-old Jason Sampognaro, who worked in promotions for a Bay Area radio station before joining the new business. “I am not much of a wine drinker! I deal with the business side of things.”
In 1945, John Pedrizzetti bought the winery, originally built in 1913. Two generations of Pedrizzetti’s operated the facility.
“We’ve made no major changes,” Sampognaro said. “We’ve kept the tasting room the same.”
But enhanced marketing and promotions are attracting new visitors, the family says, ranging from wide-eyed 21-year-olds to older connoisseurs tasting the region’s flavors. Even folks from the neighborhood have stopped by to say, “Oh, we didn’t know you were here!” Sampognaro said.
He and his wife hope to move from their home in San Jose to live on the property “as soon as it’s practical.”
“First we must sell my daughter’s townhouse (in San Jose),” he said. “And we’re getting our home at the winery fixed up.”
Meanwhile, his daughter Simmons and her husband live at the winery, raising four children ages 6 months to 5 years old. Simmons, a former technical writer, handles the design of the wine labels.
She not only enjoys the new job, and working with her family, but she’s glad to have more room for her children to stretch their legs.
“It’s going to be a great venture,” she said happily. “My kids will have a nice place to grow up.”
