New winemakers find strong support in South Valley

Santa Clara Valley has everything it needs to become the next big wine area in California: the grapes, the winemakers and most importantly people who love wine and the California wine lifestyle,” says winemaker Jeffrey Fadness of La Vie Dansante Wines via email.
That California wine lifestyle was in full display at the recent Super Barrell Tasting event on Feb. 6, when local wineries on the Santa Clara Valley Wine Trail threw open their doors, offering visitors a sample of their upcoming offerings.
The event, part of Super Bowl-related activities that brought up to a million visitors to Santa Clara County, highlighted the variety of wineries in the region, from more established names like Fortino Winery and Solis Winery on Hecker Pass Road, to relatively new ones, including the three labels that currently make up Blended, a Winemaker’s Studio, a new tasting room in the heart of the Gilroy countryside.
Located at the old Thomas Kruse Winery grounds, the new tasting room consists of boutique wineries, La Vie Dansante Wines, Medeiros Family Wines and Tass Vineyards and Winery.
Spearheaded by Fadness as a way to support new winemakers in the region, Blended acts as a wine “incubator,” giving several small wineries the space and infrastructure they need to get started.
Fadness got his start in the industry after completing a two-year intensive winemaking course at UC-Davis in 2014 and working at Jason-Stephens Winery on the weekends while holding down a corporate day job. He says he came up with the “Blended solution” after kicking around the idea with some friends.
“The fully formed idea is that a small, upcoming winemaker can come to Blended for two to three years. They get a functional winery space, tasting room, and a support network of friends for a fee that is a small percent of what it would cost to do it on their own,” says Fadness. “During their time at Blended they make wine, develop a wine club and clientele, and work on their business plan. After a few years they will have everything they need to successfully move out on their own.”
Ted Medeiros of Medeiros Family Wines said having the new tasting room will help him grow his business, secure new accounts and better gauge how much fruit he should grow for his wine portfolio.
“That’s the leap of faith,” says Medeiros, describing the period when he started off on his own in 2012 after working as winemaker for seven years at Sycamore Vineyards, a small family-owned vineyard in Morgan Hill.
A small farmer who planted his first vineyard as a hobby in the Uvas Valley in 2000, Medeiros grows on 15 different small plots across the region for his portfolio of wines, from Old Vine Zinfandel located in the Coyote Valley and Hillside Cabernet Sauvignon sites in the western foothills of Morgan Hill, to the newly planted Bordeaux sites in Gilroy featuring Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc.
Medeiros says he likes to be hands-on and manage the sites where his grapes grow to ensure the quality of the fruit. During this time of year you can catch him outside in the vineyards pruning.
“I’m not bankrolled so I do most of the work myself,” he says. “Tuning up trellises, checking irrigation lines, unclogging drippers, weed control—all those glamorous things,” he adds, chuckling.
Plus, if you are a small winemaker, the pickings may not be so great if you have to source your grapes from an existing vineyard.
“You get the tail end of vineyards if you are small,” says Medeiros. “The established connections have already taken the best of the best.”
Visitors can catch Medeiros every weekend at Blended, a Winemaker’s Studio, from noon to 5 p.m. The three wineries are also taking part in Spring Passport Weekend on March 19 & 20.
Meanwhile improvements to the site are ongoing.
“When speaking of Blended I use terms like ‘rustic’ or ‘quaint’ because there is so much left to do,” says Fadness. “We are in the middle of the tasting room design and construction should start in March. I’m hoping for phase one of the landscaping to be around April.
“We are pushing for a grand opening celebration in early May. I started this project on May 8 of 2015 and would like to have it fully functional after one year.”
Stefania Wine
1800 Day Road, Gilroy; Tasting Room hours: Third weekend of the month, Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. & Sunday Noon to 4 p.m. (408) 242-8598.
Blended, a Winemaker’s Studio
3200 Dryden Ave., Ste A, Gilroy; Tasting Room hours: Saturdays & Sundays Noon to 5 p.m. (408) 852-0779.
Lion Ranch Vineyards & Winery
645 W. San Martin Ave., San Martin; Tasting Room hours: Third weekend of the month: Fridays 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays Noon to 5 p.m. (408) 713-8501.