Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 30, 2012

B5

HOMES

Mountain Views News Saturday June 30, 2012

One Of A Kind: Featuring unique homes and gardens and the people who create them Story by Chris Bertrand. Photos by Susanne Hayek


HISTORIC 1888 WINERY EVOLVED 
INTO FRESH NEW GENERATION OF 
LOS GATOS WINES

Testarossa Winery Blends an Exquisite Meritage of 
History and Cutting Edge Winemaking

When Jesuit missionaries journeyed to Northern California from their 
native Italy in the 1800’s, they brought winemaking skills to Los Gatos, 
along with their educational missions in establishing schools. 

Turns out the Jesuits, known worldwide for their high quality schools, 
elementary through postgraduate, found that their wines went a long way toward funding the operating 
costs of their Los Gatos Novitiate (a school for men studying to be clergy) and Santa Clara College here 
in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains at the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay Area. The 
college went on to become Santa Clara University, now located adjacent to the San Jose airport, about 
ten miles away.

Hailing from Turin, the Jesuits brought their Northern Italian grapes with them, when they established 
their Novitiate Winery here in 1888, beginning with sacramental wine for churches. At its peak in 
the 1950’s, Novitiate “produced around 100,000 cases a year, according to www.SCMwine.wikispaces.
com, “and was best known for its famous fortified Black Muscat dessert wine (similar to a tawny port), 
which was a perennial gold medal winner at the annual California State Fair.”

“The ecclesiastical connection ensured that the winery survived prohibition,” the web entry continued. 
As regular sources of wine dried up, “The demand for Church altar wine production skyrocketed and 
the winery and adjoining vineyards more than doubled in size - and may also explain how it avoided 
being destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and a devastating fire in Los Gatos in 1934.” It is said that 
about a hundred novices and college students worked the winery at its height of production. 

Change begat change at Novitiate Winery. In the 1960’s, the eighty year old vines required replanting, a 
huge and expensive process, at a time when the wine industry and tastes moved toward drier varietals, 
rather than the sweeter wines produced here. 

The seminary population at Los Gatos was also in decline, and the remaining seminarians or novices 
were moved to another novitiate in Santa Barbara in 1986. The Novitiate Winery brand ceased 
production that same year, just two years short of a centennial. 

Those that keep track of such details indicate the Novitiate site is the 4th oldest continually producing 
winery site in California. After the Jesuits closed up shop, Saratoga vintner, M. Marion and Company 
took over the vineyard for a couple of years, followed in 1989 by sparkling winemaker, Mirassou, who 
continued there for a few years. The Mirassou family, who claim to be the oldest winemaking family 
in the United States, eventually sold their brand but not their vineyards to winemaking giant, Gallo.

Rob and Diana Jensen began their own winemaking venture, Testarossa Winery, with their first 25 
cases made in their Silicon Valley garage in 1993. As Electrical Engineering graduates from Santa Clara 
University, and married by one of the Jesuits, the Jensens continued and built on a bond with both the 
university and the Jesuits’ history and heritage when they took over the old winery.

The Testarossa story is truly a meritage of kindred spirits, overlapping “small world” stories, a love of 
wine, and just plain, blind faith. “Rob and I met at Santa Clara University, right here in Silicon Valley,” 
recalls Diana Jensen. They were homegrown Silicon Valley Electrical Engineering professionals, he in 
the software industry, and she in semiconductors.

“Food and wine were our hobbies. We would visit local wineries, and became collectors. We got to 
know the Cinnabar Winery winemaker, eventually helping out there at events and in the cellars,” she 
said. We made a barrel of our first wine, a Cabernet, in our garage,” she remembered. 

Right after they had their first 
child in 1993, the Cinnabar 
winemaker approached them 
about taking over a local 
unkempt vineyard. “We were 
both working, and just had a 
baby, so I was not at all excited 
initially, but my husband kept 
saying, ‘We’ll figure it out. It 
will all be fine’ and it certainly 
was! Here we are eighteen years 
later!”

Without enough funds or 
manpower to run it, they 
sold “Future Futures” as a 
promise of future wine, and an 
opportunity to help grow and 
maintain the grapes. 29 of the 
first 30 people they contacted 
invested $100 each. The Jensens 
were committed. Along the 
way, the Investors/ Wine 
Growers pulled out insidious 
poison oak, learned to prune, 
harvest and make the wine. 

The winery’s first efforts netted 
an amazing 91 points from 
Wine Spectator. They were on 
their way. The business slowly 
matured, and is now under the talented, watchful eye of Bill Brosseau, Director of Winemaking since 
2003.

The vintage stone buildings at Testarossa, some dating back 140+ years, offer a glance back to the 
history of the region. The historic entry to the current to Testarossa’s tasting room today includes many 
photos and historic information about the Novitiate history. “The original 19th century three floor, 
gravity-flow winery is still in use today to make Testarossa wines,” according to the Jensens.

According to www.Snooth.com, a wine lovers website which compares and reviews over 4 million 
wines, Testarossa, “produces over 15,000 cases annually and earned hundreds of 90+ point scores from 
all the top wine publications.” Over half of their production is sold directly at the winery, according 
to Diana Jensen.

Winemaking Director, Bill Brosseau, gained his early viticulture experience from managing his 
family’s Brosseau Vineyard. Testarossa’s enologist since 2000, the youthful but experienced and highly 
successful Brosseau, who calls himself a “liquid architect” was formerly Lab Director at Napa’s Pine 
Ridge Winery, and also worked in the Chalone Vineyard cellars.

The Jensens and Brosseau have combined their winemaking passion, technology and scientific training 
with research and cutting edge experiments geared toward delivering high quality, complex wines. 
They have developed a wine analysis and winemaking culture avidly experimenting with the ultra-
microclimate features of grapes grown, for instance, in the same field row, but at the top versus the 
bottom of a hill, or with full versus reduced irrigation.

The result, according to one visitor, also an electrical engineer, is a “magical blend of technology and 
passionate, refined winemaking. Their engineering degrees and early careers in high tech gave them 
the background and experience to work with highly trained skilled and detailed, deeply technical 
people, whether it be semiconductors or Pinot Noir.”

“They have that wonderful ability to translate that esoteric technology into brilliant wines and a 
passionate cult following,” he continued, “plus a rare talent of an information-rich, yet never pretentious, 
communication style with their avid, wine drinking consumers.”

Located about twenty minutes from the San Jose airport, the Testarossa Winery is a vibrant and busy 
place seven days a week from 11-5, with a parking lot full of not only cars and motorcycles, but bicycles 
from the ardent cycling community of tourists as well as locals. 

Los Gatos is ideally situated at the gateway to “The Hill”, as locals refer to the Highway 17 entrance 
to the Santa Cruz Mountains. These mountains are home to the nearly one hundred wineries of its 
mountain appellation. 

Tempered by mountain elevations and the cooling effects of the Pacific on one side and San Francisco 
Bay on the other, it has been called “the finest winegrowing area in the western hemisphere” by expert 
Charles Sullivan. 

An extended growing season allows slower grape maturation and time to develop their critically 
renowned, award-winning complexity. Pinot and Chardonnay on the west side, and Zin, Cab and 
Merlot on the east face, so oenophiles can taste a wide gamut of favorites within a limited distance.

Testarossa currently offers 94 point rated, 2009 Chardonnay among other noteworthy Chardonnay, 
Pinot, and Syrah wines.

Testarossa Winery is located at 300-A College Avenue, Los Gatos, about a half mile up from the town’s 
vibrant culinary Mecca of over 170 bistros. A great boutique hotel, Hotel Los Gatos and Spa (www.
HotelLosGatos.com) also located in downtown Los Gatos, is a wonderful base camp for wine tasting 
adventures in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Reference data for this article was obtained from Testarossa Winery and Santa Cruz Mountain 
Winegrowers Association. For more information about Testarossa and Novitiate Winery, visit www.
Testarossa.com and www.scmwa.com or call 408-335-1700.


ATTRACT BIRDS & BUTTERFLIES NO MATTER 
WHAT SIZE YOUR LANDSCAPE

By gardening expert, & 
author Melinda Myers

 Add a little extra color and 
motion to your summer garden 
with containers designed to 
attract birds and butterflies. 
Many garden centers continue 
to sell annuals throughout the 
summer and many of these 
mid-season annuals are a 
bit bigger, providing instant 
impact.

 It’s easier than you think to 
attract birds and butterflies and 
the good news is you don’t need 
a lot of space to do it. Container 
gardens give you the ability 
to attract wildlife to your 
backyard, patio, deck or even 
balcony. Simply follow these 
four steps and your garden will 
be filled with color, motion and 
a season of wildlife.

 1- Provide food for birds 
and butterflies. Include plants 
with flat daisy-like flowers 
like pentas, zinnias, and 
cosmos to attract butterflies. 
For hummingbirds, include 
some plants with tubular 
flowers including nicotiana, 
cuphea, salvia, and fuchsia. 
And don't forget about the 
hungry caterpillars that will 
soon turn into beautiful 
butterflies. Parsley, bronze 
fennel, and licorice vines are a 
few favorites that make great 
additions to container gardens. 
You can even create containers 
that will attract seed-eating 
birds. Purple Majesty millet, 
coneflower, coreopsis, and 
Rudbeckias will keep many 
of the birds returning to your 
landscape.

 2- Include water for both the 
birds and butterflies. It’s a key 
ingredient and a decorative 
small shallow container filled 
with water can be included in 
a large container. Or include a 
free-standing birdbath within 
your container collection. I 
used a bronzed leaf birdbath 
in just this way. It created a 
great vertical accent, added 
interest to a blank wall and 
provided a water supply for 
the birds.

 3- Give them a place to live 
and raise their young. Add a 
few evergreens, ornamental 
grasses, and perennials to 
your container garden. Use 
weather resistant containers 
that can tolerate the extreme 
heat and cold in your garden. 
Then fill with plants that are 
at least one zone hardier. 
Or add a few birdhouses. 
These can be included in the 
container or mounted on a 
fence, post, or nearby tree.

 4- Skip the pesticides, please. 
Nature, including the birds 
you invite into your landscape, 
will devour many garden pests. 
Plus, the chemicals designed 
to kill the bad guys can also 
kill the good bugs and wildlife 
you are trying to attract. And, 
if pests get out of hand, use 
more eco-friendly products like 
soaps, Neem, and horticulture 
oil as a control mechanism. 
And, as always, read and follow 
label directions carefully.

 And to conserve time and 
energy, try using one of the self-
watering containers or hanging 
baskets that are on the market. 
This helps to make it both easy 
and convenient when time 
constraints and vacations get in 
the way of providing ideal care. 
I recently tried using one of the 
Gardener’s Supply Easy Roller 
self-watering containers. I 
filled one with wildlife-friendly 
petunias along with papyrus 
and golden moneywort. After 
a five-day trip during hot dry 
weather I returned to find my 
container garden in great shape 
and hummingbirds visiting the 
flowers. 

 So gather your family and get 
started planting your wildlife 
container garden today.

Nationally known gardening 
expert, TV/radio host, author 
& columnist Melinda Myers 
has more than 30 years of 
horticulture experience and 
has written over 20 gardening 
books, including Can’t Miss 
Small Space Gardening. She 
hosts the nationally syndicated 
Melinda’s Garden Moment 
segments which air on over 
115 TV and radio stations 
throughout the U.S. and 
Canada. She is a columnist and 
contributing editor for Birds & 
Blooms magazine and writes 
the twice monthly “Gardeners’ 

Questions” newspaper column. Melinda 
also has a column in Gardening How-
to magazine. Melinda hosted “The 
Plant Doctor” radio program for over 
20 years as well as seven seasons of 
Great Lakes Gardener on PBS. She has 
written articles for Better Homes and 
Gardens and Fine Gardening and was 
a columnist and contributing editor for 
Backyard Living magazine. Melinda 
has a master’s degree in horticulture, 
is a certified arborist and was a 
horticulture instructor with tenure. Her 
web site is www.melindamyers.com 


BENEFITS ON BOTH SIDES

There are new rules regarding short sales meant to improve the experience for both sellers 
and buyers, but the legalities and legwork can overwhelm even the most savvy. Of course, 
that's where the real estate agent shines, handling the paperwork and the phone calls, 
leaving you to focus on your move.

 Keep in mind that if you're expecting to buy a home on short sale, you can get a great deal, 
but don't expect miracles from a bank that has agreed to accept a price lower than what 
the sellers owe on their mortgage. These short sales often generate multiple offers, and if 
a home has been approved to sell for $200,000, don't expect to waltz in and offer $125,000.

The real advantage of a short sale deal is that the home will likely be in much better physical 
condition than its foreclosure counterpart. Often, a foreclosed home will have been 
abandoned for months, and perhaps trashed before being vacated. A short sale property in 
better condition is in and of itself a benefit with real value that offsets any lower price you 
could offer on a foreclosure.

And for sellers, a short sale preserves your dignity, reduces some of the stress, and won't 
damage your credit history as much as a foreclosure. Whether selling or buying, consult 
an agent for the best results.


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com