{"id":460,"date":"2017-02-01T00:32:47","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T00:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=460"},"modified":"2017-02-20T23:35:24","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T23:35:24","slug":"testarossa-winery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=460","title":{"rendered":"Testarossa Winery"},"content":{"rendered":"

California makes wine.\u00a0 California makes software.\u00a0 You just don\u2019t expect those things to happen in the same place, but in silicon Valley\u2019s Los Gatos you can find Testarossa, makers of fine Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs.\u00a0 (http:\/\/www.testarossa.com\/<\/a>) Even better for the visitor, the winery and its tasting room are in a building with genuine historical and architectural interest.<\/p>\n

Testarossa is in the Santa Clara Valley, a part of California\u2019s Wine Country we had never visited before\u2026at least not for wine.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course we knew the more famous places like Napa, Sonoma and Paso Robles, and to be honest we had low expectations of Santa Clara.\u00a0 To be even more honest, many of the wineries where we tasted fully lived up to our low expectations.\u00a0 But Testarossa was the happy exception.<\/p>\n

You approach Testarossa up a steep and winding roadway leading to a large parking lot with a rather large and austere building on top.\u00a0 It was once a Jesuit seminary, dating from the 1880s, and was also the home of Novitiate Winery, which the brothers ran to fund the school.\u00a0 The wine making facilities are used by Testarossa today.\u00a0 Visitors enter the tasting room through a long, arched stone arcade, which opens up into a rather capacious facility with two long bars.\u00a0 On weekends they add tables to serve guests in other parts of the room.\u00a0 There is also a wine bar on the grounds.<\/p>\n

\"testarossa\"<\/a>Photo courtesy of Testarossa Winery<\/em><\/p>\n

One factor that makes a visit to Testarossa particularly enjoyable \u2013 other than the wine itself, of course \u2013 is the fact that the servers are extremely knowledgeable and helpful.\u00a0 The winery provides ample training and all are at least level one sommeliers.\u00a0 It is not an exaggeration to call them wine educators.\u00a0 Not that they\u2019re snobby and professorial.\u00a0 Quite the opposite.\u00a0 They set a tone that says, \u201cWine is fun; good wine is great fun\u201d.<\/p>\n

We must say that we enjoyed what we tasted and were particularly interested in their approach to wine making. \u00a0Testarossa has no estate wines.\u00a0 That means that they do not grow grapes on their own property.\u00a0 The Jesuits did grow on the grounds, but after more than a century, the vines had given out.\u00a0 Today, Testarossa sources all its grapes from vineyards up and down the California coast, from Russian River and Sonoma Coast down to the Santa Rita Hills.\u00a0 To our tastes, their best wines come from the Santa Lucia Highlands, but then we\u2019re very favorable towards wines made from grapes grown there.<\/p>\n

A highlight of a visit is tasting the wide array of single vineyard wines that Testarossa makes.\u00a0 They\u2019re picking up some fancy numbers from the rating magazines and we feel that they\u2019re well justified.\u00a0 At the same time, we gravitated towards the blends, especially from the aforementioned Santa Lucia Highlands.\u00a0 The reserve tasting is definitely worth the extra expense (not that much, really, since at $20.00 it\u2019s only $10.00 more than the regular one).<\/p>\n

We recommend that, when visiting Testarossa, you take your time and ask a lot of questions.\u00a0 You\u2019ll get knowledgeable answers and once you show your interest, your server is likely to open bottles that aren\u2019t on the tasting list, even on a weekend.\u00a0 It would be worthwhile visiting this winery just for the history.\u00a0 In these days of vanity wineries, it\u2019s a pleasure to see software folks who hit it big \u2013 it is Silicon Valley,\u00a0 after all \u2013 making the commitment to fine wine and a great tasting experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California makes wine.\u00a0 California makes software.\u00a0 You just don\u2019t expect those things to happen in the same place, but in silicon Valley\u2019s Los Gatos you can find Testarossa, makers of fine Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs.\u00a0 (http:\/\/www.testarossa.com\/) Even better for the visitor, the winery and its tasting room are in a building with genuine historical and … Continue reading Testarossa Winery<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}