Santa Clara county is not only home to many Silicon Valley companies, but is also home to some of the oldest vineyards in California. Some of the vineyards in Santa Clara Valley are over 100 years old. Surprised? So was I when I discovered the Santa Clara Wine trail, which is literally a few miles south of San Jose. Thanks to the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley Wine 2015 Fall Passport program I discovered a clutch of vineyards right in my backyard. And in the process also discovered a California champagne made from almonds.

 

 

Nestled in the towns of Gilroy and Morgan Hill are a string of vineyards, where you can taste a range of red and white wines and champagne. Armed with maps and our passport booklets we drove down south to Gilroy in a fancy Tesla car for some wine tasting. No, the Tesla was not mine. This was a fun expedition and we hit the first vineyard within 20 minutes into our trip from San Jose. How cool is that?

 

 

The first one we visited was Solis Winery that took us by pleasant surprise with its selfie spot. Whoever came up with that “selfie spot,” knows the power of social media and our penchant for taking those selfies and posting them on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Did we take a selfie? You betcha, we did!

 

 

We then visited Sarah’s Vineyards, Kirgin Cellars, Fortino Wineries and Guglielmo Wineries that was founded in 1905. We planned to visit more wineries, but ran out of time. What this means is that there is another trip that we need to make south of San Jose and explore the other wineries in Santa Clara wine trail. Stay tuned for that trip.

If you plan to visit the wineries of Santa Clara Valley do check out Gilroy Welcome Center and Santa Clara Wines for timings and other information. Plan on spending at 4 to 5 hours for your trip.

Disclosure: We were invited as guests by the Gilroy Welcome Center to the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley 2015 Fall Passport event.