The announcement that the Santa Clara Valley Winegrowers
Association has shuttered its operations was bad news for all of
South Valley, not just wine grape growers.
The announcement that the Santa Clara Valley Winegrowers Association has shuttered its operations was bad news for all of South Valley, not just wine grape growers.
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.
Just when it seemed the association was 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 left. The association dissolved on Oct. 3.
We think the closure of the association is a missed opportunity for the wine growers and the 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 winegrowers association. We urge the economic and tourism leaders of the region and city and county officials to step in with whatever assistance – financial or advisory – they can provide.
A look at the Napa Valley, or even the fledgling tourism efforts in San Benito County, demonstrates the key role a robust wine growers 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.
We hope the South Valley wine growers will regroup in the very near future and 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.
