When you think of wine in California then the two places that instantly come to mind are Napa and Sonoma located north of San Francisco. Instead, if you drove down south of San Francisco into Silicon Valley area and a little beyond into the towns of Gilroy and Morgan Hill you will discover a wonderful wine trail of family-owned wineries. Santa Clara Valley is considered as  one of the oldest wine growing regions of California.

Santa Clara Valley is best for its start-ups and hi-tech companies and many are pleasantly surprised to discover  the wineries in this area. Guglielmo Winery is is the oldest winery dating back to 1925. Apparently in the 18th and 19th the wine grown in this region was used during sacrament by the California Missions. In the 20th the region witnessed an increase in vineyards, which petered out in the 1970s. In the past fews there has been a resurgence in vineyards and wineries in this area. In 2014 Santa Clara county unveiled the Santa Clara Wine Trail initiative to help promote the wines of this region.

Earlier this year, we caught up with a couple of folks from Santa Clara Wineries at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. We spoke with Sommelier Alicia Cuadra-Cuter of  Sycamore Creek Vineyards in Morgan Hill. In this video interview she offers helpful suggestions on how to judge wines. She walks us through a couple of Sycamore Creek Vineyards wines and helps us understand and discover their flavor profiles.