SAN MARTIN
– They may tell you their winery isn’t just for the rich and
famous, but simply standing outside of the Clos LaChance Winery
makes one feel luxurious.
SAN MARTIN – They may tell you their winery isn’t just for the rich and famous, but simply standing outside of the Clos LaChance Winery makes one feel luxurious.
The winery, located at 1 Hummingbird Lane, just off of Watsonville Road, is more like what you would expect to see north of San Francisco, not south of San Jose. Clos LaChance, which opened in May, encompasses the size and beauty of some of elegant wineries usually seen in the Napa Valley.
A tour of the winery’s grounds is filled with surprises, with the winery looking out over the Lion’s Gate Valley and the sixth hole of the golf course at CordeValle.
The cellar room is one of many highlights on a tour of Clos LaChance. The stone walls and floor make visitors feel like they have been transported into a private room in a castle, and the smell of wine permeates from fermentation barrels in the next room.
“It’s kind of like King Arthur’s,” said Cheryl Murphy-Durzy, Clos LaChance director of marketing and distribution.
Clos LaChance, owned by Bill Murphy and named after his wife’s maiden name, has become an instant getaway for some of South County’s elite. Its site has become a popular choice for weddings, concerts, private dinners and more. The winery also holds monthly estate dinners for up to 100 people, inviting chefs from San Jose and San Francisco to the winery for five-course, $100 per plate dinners with wines to match each course.
But even with this elegance, Murphy-Durzy stressed that Clos LaChance is a winery for everyone, with tastings for $3 and wines priced anywhere from $18 to $50.
The beauty and atmosphere not only associated with one of South County’s newest wineries but of the entire community at CordeValle will be featured at 6:30 p.m. Sunday in “Wine Country Living,” a show about Bay Area dream lifestyles airing on NBC.
“It’s going to be pretty focused,” Murphy-Durzy said about the show, which for the first time will devote the entire half-hour show to a single location. “I hope that it brings more people here. We’re new, so we’re still getting established.”
Although Clos LaChance’s grounds bring a sense of luxury hard to match by many of the smaller wineries in the area, Murphy-Durzy said that the winery isn’t trying to take business from them.
“The wineries around here have been super-supportive of us,” she said. “We all have the same goal, and that’s to support this region. There’s been grapevines here longer than Napa.”
She said the biggest problem facing all area wineries is expanding the market of winedrinkers.
“Ninety percent of the wines are being consumed by 10 percent of the population,” she said. “That means there is 90 percent of an untapped market.”
The family-owned winery hopes to help create a new market of wine drinkers.
“We need to look at it not being a ‘special occasion’ drink,” Murphy-Durzy said.
To help people get over the intimidation that comes with understanding and drinking wine, Clos LaChance is providing seminars appealing to new wine drinkers.
“Some of the classes have nothing to do with us,” Murphy-Durzy said. “It’s not just about our wines, it’s about wine in general.”
Classes will be on the third Thursday of each month beginning Jan. 27. Topics include an introduction to wine essences and tasting, varietals of California, basics of food and wine pairing and even seminars on wines from France and Austrailia.
All seminars are sold individually for $25 per person, except the food and wine pairing session, which is $50 per person. The entire series may be purchased for $150. Seating is limited, so reservations are recommended.
Creating more wine connoisseurs would only help area wineries thrive, Murphy-Durzy said.
“People like to see four or five different wineries when they go wine tasting,” she said. “We want to be considered a destination spot, and when they see us, then they’ll see three or four other wineries that they wouldn’t have seen otherwise.”
For more information on Clos LaChance’s dinners, special engagements, wine education or open houses call 686-1050.
