Family winery produces its Cask 140 Charbono-Cabernet blend in 2013
Published in the December 11-25 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
Gino Fortino in the barrel room of Fortino Winery. His father purchased the winery in 1970, while Gino and his sister Teri took over in 1995.
Fortino Winery has grown into a favorite Hecker Pass destination for wine lovers. The family-run business was established in 1970 when Ernest and Marie Fortino purchased a vineyard in the valley that had been producing vino since the early 1930s. Ernest was drawn to the coastal mountain vineyard because the tranquil land reminded him of his native Calabria in the “toe” section of southern Italy.
“When my parents started dating after my mom graduated from high school, they drove back and forth over Hecker Pass Road, and they saw that the winery was for sale,” said Gino Fortino, who took over from his father as winemaker in 1995. “At the time my dad was working for Bargetto (Winery) over in Santa Cruz and he thought that this might be a good time to start his own business.”
With his sister Teri Fortino’s help, Gino has built the family winery into one of the most popular businesses in Gilroy. Over the years, the brother and sister have developed the winery by building an events center for weddings, birthdays and corporate events as well as modernizing the wine-making equipment and expanding the marketing reach. Fortino Winery recently received the honor from the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce of becoming that city’s 2014 small business of the year.
Fortino learned how to make wine by taking courses in chemistry at Hartnell Community College in Salinas as well as working in the family business since he turned 21 in 1987.
“We have a big emphasis on red wines,” he said. “That’s been our philosophy for the last 43 years — making nice, easy-drinking red wines and to this day we do that. Even our Cabernets that tend to be very heavy are still nice and smooth and easy drinking wines where they’re not going to have that bitter taste at the end.”
Besides cabs, reds offered by Fortino Winery include Carigna, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Zinfindel. Fortino is one of the few wineries in California to offer the rare Charbono wines. Of the 80 acres where the grape is grown throughout the state, Fortino has three acres of this variety on it vineyard in San Martin. The inky-dark wine is full body dry like a Barberra, Fortino said.
White wines produced by Fortino winery include Chardonnay, Black Muscat, and an occasional Pinot Grigio. The winery also produces pomegranate, apricot and blackberry fruit wines as well as a refreshingly delicious almond champagne that is a best seller during the holiday season and is popular for wedding toasts.
With the 2013 harvest, Fortino decided to produce a new blended wine it labels as Cask 140. The number is a pun on the Fortino name — “fourteen-O.”
“It’s a 50 percent blend of Cabernet and a 50 percent blend of Charbono,” Fortino said. “We went through and handpicked barrels of each wine and then we tasted every barrel and handpicked from every barrel and blended the two together to put together a very good wine.”
Fortino gives a lot of credit for the quality of his Cabernet wine to the coastal mountain climate of Hecker Pass.
“What happens over here is that the valley cools down at night because we get the first breezes that come from the ocean,” he said. “So it might be warm during the day, but at night it cools down. And that makes for a great Cabernet. Some of the best Cabernet in the valley is produced right here because the micro-climate gives our Cabernet grapes a long growing season. Cabernet is always the last grapes we pick, and so you get a long maturation for the wine.”
FORTINO WINERY
Location: 4525 Hecker Pass Highway, Gilroy
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday
Contact: (408) 842-3305 or www.fortinowinery.com
