Follow San Martin’s Clos LaChance Winery up to their new tasting room in Los Gatos and you may find yourself rubbing ice skates with Peggy Fleming or her winemaker husband, Greg Jenkins. Backyard Wineries tasting room opened on Main Street in Los Gatos just in time for the last minute Christmas gift buying and made record sales last Tuesday afternoon when I stopped in for a peek.
Clos LaChance and the Fleming Jenkins Winery have teamed up to open a high-class tasting room featuring wines from both winemakers and the grapes from John Madden’s Livermore Valley vineyard. With the option of a $5 general tasting menu or a $10 limited tasting, which included a tempting Bordeaux Style Red, I opted for the limited tasting starting with the Fleming Jenkins 2005 Santa Cruz Mountain Chardonnay.
The wines were elegantly served on a wrought iron spiral holder with the server offering dark chocolate candies as we moved toward the heavier reds. The Chardonnay was delightful, not over-oaked or too buttery.
Sharing the tasting bar with me were Linda March, Dionna Smith and Arbet Bet-Shliemoun. Arbet received a phone call during our tasting from former co-worker, friend and South County Real Estate Agent, Dominic Godfrey. This started the game six degrees of separation. It goes on with Arbet explaining his connection with Morgan Hill, where his niece and his buddy – the former Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy – live. Small world phenomena strikes again.
Out of this world was the Fleming Jenkins 2004 “Choreography” Bordeaux Style Red Wine and even better was to enjoy it in the company of Fleming herself. Fleming arrived to the tasting room fresh from wrapping and packaging presents for her East Coast grandchildren. Ever the gracious personality, Fleming greeted March, Smith and Bet-Shliemoun as they headed out of the tasting room with their purchases only to witness the group turn around and head back into the tasting room to shyly ask for Fleming to autograph their wine bottles.
When asked how she feels about opening a business in downtown Los Gatos Fleming replied, “It’s an official beginning. We’ve lived in Los Gatos for 28 years and now we can just walk over here from our office. We have a career together (with retired dermatologist husband Greg) for the first time. Having a Los Gatos address on our wine label is great!”
Go check out the address at 45 West Main St. in Los Gatos and if you catch Peggy in the room don’t worry; she bought a case of pens for signing bottles.
Now, what kind of meat goes with that nice bottle of “Choreography” you purchased at Backyard Wineries? Freshly hit wild boar? I’ve heard of the hunter-gatherer types but what about the hit-and-gatherer types? They live on New Avenue in San Martin. Rebecca Santos thought she did major damage to her Landcruiser when she hit a 200 pound boar on the road near Bear Ranch last Sunday night but instead she provided Christmas Eve dinner for her family! I was even treated to pictures of the carcass after church services sans the apple in its mouth. Pork; the other white meat.
Ciao for now.
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