A sign of the wines

New signs directing wine-loving motorists to South County wineries will do much more than keep agritourists and oenophiles from becoming disoriented under uniformly blue skies and rolling hills in search of vineyards and tasting rooms.
The forthcoming signs will also promote Santa Clara Valley as a premiere wine region and inevitably bring tourism dollars to the local economy, according to those who have pushed the wayfinding effort over the last two years.
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously granted preliminary approval Nov. 5 to a new ordinance allowing for the placement of winery wayfinding signs on County roadsides. County staff did not indicate how much it would cost to produce and install the signs, but a staff report from the Nov. 5 meeting says the ordinance itself will cause “no fiscal impacts to the general fund.”
The development marks another milestone for South County wines, which continue to garner recognition alongside growers from the ever-popular Paso Robles area and industry giants from Napa and Sonoma.
There are currently more than 20 wineries in Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy, and Sheldon Haynie, co-owner of Lightheart Cellars in San Martin, said at least four new ones are getting ready to open their doors soon.
Santa Clara Valley is the oldest commercial wine growing region in California, according to Haynie. It’s time for people from outside the area to take notice and the new County sign ordinance will help with that ongoing effort, he said.
“Part of (promoting agritourism) is getting people to come down and visit, and wineries are the only part of (local) agritourism that functions year-round,” said Haynie, who is also the outgoing President of the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley marketing association. “And it will raise people’s awareness in general – even if the wineries are not open when they’re driving by.”
Haynie said the sign effort is “symptomatic of a spirit of cooperation” among the wineries, agriculture advocates and the cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy. The hope is that more residents to the north will increasingly choose Santa Clara Valley for their next wine outing, versus the more wine-drenched, crowded regions in the North Bay such as Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley. In those areas, the economy is built around wine and visitors have to “pay a toll, and fight traffic.”
“People at Google like to go drink wine,” Haynie noted.
And they won’t come just for the wine – they will go out to lunch and dinner, buy gas and maybe even peruse the shops of downtown Morgan Hill or Gilroy.
“We’re just delighted,” said Jane Howard, executive director of the Gilroy Welcome Center. “Let’s continue to get the word out about how great our wineries are down here.”
Howard noted that Welcome Center staff were part of a committee that started the conversation with the County about allowing winery directional signs. She added the City of Gilroy General Plan, which is currently in the process of an update, has an economic development component that includes a section on “increased promotion and development of wine tourism.”
Such directional signs were previously prohibited in the County sign ordinance, according to County staff.
District 1 (South County) Supervisor Mike Wasserman and his staff led the effort to bring the legislation to the board for approval, with the steadfast encouragement of local winery owners and South County economic development proponents.
Wasserman called the new ordinance the end of a “success story,” the result of tireless promotion and lobbying by local wine enthusiasts and vintners.
“We are now happy to say we have a directional wayfinding sign program,” Wasserman said. “The County will pay for, install and maintain signs – within reason – that direct people (to wineries). This is going to promote agritourism, especially the wineries in South County, as regional attractions.”
The ordinance will return to the board Nov. 26 for final approval.
The cities of Gilroy and Morgan Hill already allow and have posted roadway directional signs within the city limits for wineries. Morgan Hill Economic Development Manager Edith Ramirez said the new County ordinance is a crucial link because most of routes between wineries are on County roads in unincorporated areas.
Local tourism proponents and some vintners say the new County ordinance is key to establishing a “wine trail” to clearly guide motorists. Such a route, labeled by roadside signs, would direct motorists and agritourists among wineries in a loop through Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy, with spurs leading to more isolated wineries.
“It’s something that we in the community have collectively been working toward and supporting for a long time, to allow a wine trail and signage program to happen,” Ramirez said.
Even the opening of the new Butterfield Boulevard southern extension in Morgan Hill is likely to facilitate travel to local wineries by offering a more direct route to Watsonville Road – a rural route through unincorporated South County areas that is lined with wineries like Clos LaChance and Jason-Stephens, Morgan Hill resident and wine enthusiast Jon Hatakeyama said.
Wasserman and other sources credited two Morgan Hill residents as being the chief lobbyists for the new County ordinance – Hatakeyama and Morgan Hill Cellars owner Mike Sampognaro.
Hatakeyama is a member of the Society of Wine Educators, a nonprofit educational organization. He recently attended a society conference in San Mateo County, and noted “all (the attendees) could think about was Napa and Sonoma.”
“This is the perfect group of people we wanted to get down to Santa Clara Valley wineries, because frankly I think their wines are just about as good as anyone else’s,” Hatakeyama continued. “Once we get this established, people are going to come out here, then come back to our great downtown to dine at our restaurants, and that’s going to help out the downtown, too.”
The exact placement of the new signs allowed by the County has not been determined. The proposed design of the signs is nondescript yet straightforward – simply the label “Winery” with directional arrows and an illustration of a grape vine depicted thereon, according to County staff.
“Our ideal situation would be some kind of freeway signage to announce (that motorists) are in Santa Clara Valley wine country,” but state authorities seem reluctant to allow such signage on the US 101 right-of-way, Sampognaro said.
Local wine trail proponents also hope to one day link up the Santa Clara Valley route with wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Cruz County, according to Santa Clara County Farm Bureau Executive Director Jennifer Scheer, who also worked with Wasserman’s office on the ordinance.
Dan Martin, co-owner of Martin Ranch Winery in Gilroy, said when large crowds gather at local wineries for organized events such as the Passport Weekend, a common observation among patrons is they didn’t realize how many wineries there are in South County. More signs will likely help educate visitors about the region’s vast vinous offerings.
“We’re very pleased the County has done this – it’s taken a while and because there’s so many agencies involved, everybody in the wine business thinks it’s a good idea,” Martin said. “We’re trying to increase agritourism, so anything that does that will benefit everybody.”