Sultry weather and sassy tunes set the tone for the Guglielmo
Winery
’s 12th annual Harvest Festival Saturday, with approximately 300
guests sipping wine in the sunlight, playing winery games for
prizes and, after a tri tip dinner, dancing at dusk. “It feels like
a casual wedding reception, surrounded by friends and family,” said
Christy Wait, who is a part of
the Guglielmo family through the marriage of her daughter. “It
has been a lovely day.”
Sultry weather and sassy tunes set the tone for the Guglielmo Winery’s 12th annual Harvest Festival Saturday, with approximately 300 guests sipping wine in the sunlight, playing winery games for prizes and, after a tri tip dinner, dancing at dusk.
“It feels like a casual wedding reception, surrounded by friends and family,” said Christy Wait, who is a part of the Guglielmo family through the marriage of her daughter. “It has been a lovely day.”
Games helped to pass the time until the dinner and the much-anticipated grape stomp. Guests could hurl a potato at a hanging Italian sausage – and win a sausage if they were able to hit it – and at a circle on the floor in a “botched up Bocci ball” game, or whack a walnut with a large mallet as it rolled out of a tube, or try their luck at flipping a wine cork into empty wine glasses. Prizes were “dollars” guest could spend in the winery tasting room.
The actual harvest won’t begin for about three weeks; the festival is held earlier because winery workers will be too busy once it gets under way. According to Steve Wilson, winery marketing director, an “ideal” harvest would last approximately six weeks, with the different kinds of grapes ripening at different times.
Warm weather, however, he said, can cause the grapes to ripen quicker and most of the grapes are ready for harvest at the same time, which really burdens the winery’s storage capacity.
The winery typically produces 35,000 cases a year under the Guglielmo label, plus custom work for other people, for a total of more 100,000 cases each year. Their wines are available in approximately 15 states, Wilson said.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy, who attended the event with his wife, Eileen, said he was pleased the community was able to support two successful events on the same day. The Morgan Hill Aquatics Foundation held its second annual fundraising event, “Cool Brews for Cool Pools.”
“It’s a wonderful day in Morgan Hill because we had not one but two wonderful events,” he said. “Both received a lot of support from friends and volunteers in the community.”
“Music in the Vineyard” presents singer Maria Muldaur, The Limeliters, Ronny Cox, Steve Seskin, Blame Sally, the David Thom Band, Sunday, Sept. 14, from 1:30-7:30 p.m. Details: 779-2145 or www.GuglielmoWinery.com, for tickets www.ticketweb.com
