Visitors enjoy ‘authenticity, the individuality and the diversity’ of Santa Clara Valley during Passport Weekend

The Wineries of Santa Clara Valley held their bi-annual Passport Weekend Saturday and Sunday, offering tours of the area’s historic, family-owned or start-up wineries.
Passport is all about trying new wines, eating tasty tapas, enjoying live entertainment, merry company and meeting winemakers in the beautiful stretches of South County countryside.
WSCV President Sheldon Haynie, who is also co-owner of San Martin’s Lightheart Cellars, said that – preliminarily at least – the WSCV saw fewer people last weekend than they did in Fall of 2012. Despite that, Haynie was pleased with the event’s turnout, which he described as “moderate” across the board.
Haynie said there were more passholders in 2012, based on early estimates, but it’s not the quantity that counts.
“This year had a different energy,” Haynie said. “We didn’t get swarmed, so we were able to have more of a connection with the clientele.”
Encouraging downtown merchants and the City to sell event passes, Haynie said the Gilroy Downtown Business Association and Gilroy Welcome Center helped promote the event and brought the community together for everyone’s benefit.
“We’ve reached out before to businesses downtown before but this was the first time we had that level of organization,” he said “The community reached back.”
“All I know right now is that we sold a lot of passports,” said Welcome Center Executive Director, Jane Howard. “We were very, very busy and kept getting phone calls all week.”
Howard said the Welcome Center advertised Passport in their newsletter, which is seen by thousands, and through the nonprofit’s Facebook, Twitter and blog.
Vic Vanni, owner of Gilroy-based Solis Winery, said it will be a few days before the official numbers are in from all 22 participating wineries. At his vineyard, Vanni said the turnout just about matched last year’s.
“Most customers love to chat with the winemakers and the owners,” Vanni said. “They like the laid-back kind of feel; it’s really personal.”
Vanni said Passport Weekend is a great introductory experience for vino enthusiasts in the making, where passholders hop from winery to winery in the areas between Gilroy and Saratoga.
“We get a lot of people from San Jose and we actually target the Silicon Valley,” he added. “We see a lot of new faces and that’s the goal.”
Haynie said visitors to his winery came from as far as Napa – roughly a two-hour drive from Gilroy.
“The reason they did that is they wanted to have the experience of talking to a winemaker – someone with hands on the product,” Haynie said. “That’s the charm of the Santa Clara Valley. We still have active ownership and that family ownership is part of the connection. People crave authenticity.”
He said some customers were just neighbors, clueless to the fact that there was winery next-door until passing by out of curiosity or by chance.
Morgan Hill’s Ross Vineyards and Winery, which opened in May, saw 50 customers Saturday – the day co-owner Judy Ross said is typically the slowest. Not all customers were passholders though, she said, as Passport Weekend fell on the weekend of their bi-monthly tastings.
“It was really a ‘brace yourself’ weekend,” Ross added. “We had lots of first timers and a few repeat customers – some came back three times.”
This season’s harvest has been “very heavy” so far, according to Tim Slater, owner of Sarah’s Vineyard on Hecker Pass in Gilroy. Last year, area vintners reported an abundance of grapes – in stark contrast to 2011, when many local winemakers said there was a severe shortage of fruit.
The next Passport Weekend will take place in March 2014. Profits from passport sales go towards promoting the event in the future, according to Haynie.
“[The Santa Clara Valley] hasn’t been homogenized by market pressure,” he continued. “A part of what the clientele comes for is the authenticity, the individuality and the diversity. The customers get it.”
“We take our wines seriously,” he added. “But they don’t have to.”