The announcement that the Santa Clara Valley Winegrowers
Association has shuttered its operations was bad news for all of
South Valley, not just winegrowers.
The announcement that the Santa Clara Valley Winegrowers Association has shuttered its operations was bad news for all of South Valley, not just winegrowers.
That’s because a thriving wine industry in South Valley would have had economic ripple effects that many other businesses would have enjoyed. Local restaurants, hotels, gas stations and retailers, for example, would have seen increased business if the winegrowers had succeeded in their mission to bring more tourists to taste the area’s fine wines and sample our unique settings.
Wineries working together create synergy much like a row of car dealerships or a lively mix of interesting downtown shops.
Alas, just when it seemed the winegrowers were making progress on that front – hiring its first paid staff member, Executive Director Valerie Brockbank, increasing joint marketing, organizing regional wine tasting events – it all went sour. The association’s only employee filed suit against the association and two of the group’s members bolted. Under this cloud of confrontation, the association dissolved on Oct. 3.
The closure leaves a large vacuum not only for the winegrowers, but for the entire region. We urge the two most visible and successful wineries in South Santa Clara – well-established Guglielmo Winery in Morgan Hill and newcomer Clos La Chance in San Martin – to exercise leadership during this crisis and direct an effort to resuscitate the organization at the first sensible opportunity. Gilroy’s Economic Development Director Bill Lindsteadt and Visitors Bureau Director Kirsten Carr, as economic and tourism leaders, should be at the forefront of revival discussions. Perhaps the Gilroy Small Business Development could assist in facilitating resurrection discussions.
A look at the Napa Valley, or even the fledgling tourism efforts in San Benito County, demonstrates the key role a robust winegrowers association can play in drawing visitors to a region. And we know that tourism is a great boon to any region’s economy, providing jobs and sales tax revenue with a “clean” industry.
The South Valley winegrowers hopefully will regroup in the very near future and not become overly dismayed or gun shy after this initial failed effort.
To do so would be pennywise and pound foolish.
Santa Clara Valley, as the winegrowers’ association Web site boasts, is the oldest continuously producing wine region in California. The area is a designated and distinctive wine-growing appellation. Our wineries are both homespun and high-tech.
That’s an awful lot to just give up on. Let’s hope the growers work together to revive their association. The lesson that wine-growing regions to our north and south provide is that alone, they might survive, but with teamwork, our wineries can thrive. And thriving wineries are good for the entire region.
