It’s been a little more than a year since the Santa Clara Valley Wine Trail was inaugurated. At Lion Ranch Vineyards and Winery Aug. 29, a celebration of the one-year anniversary took place, with local wine-makers proclaiming the trail is a proven success, bringing in an increasing number of customers who want to get away from Napa Valley and other over-commercialized regions and instead discover a re-emerging California wine country.
In the Gilroy, San Martin and Morgan Hill region, there are about 25 wineries — some of them long-established such as Guglielmo Winery and Morgan Hill Cellars and other relatively new such as Paradise Valley and Castillo’s Hillside Shire Winery. With many of them still family-run (Guglielmo for 90 years!), they offer a far different experience from other regions’ wineries glutted by tourists attracted by heavy marketing.
