Winery also bottles and sells both red and white vinegar
Printed on Page 7 of the July 10, 2013 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Along San Pedro Avenue looking east toward the Diablo Mountain Range is a true South Valley Wine Treasure — and one of the oldest wineries in Santa Clara Valley. Throughout 2013, Morgan Hill Cellars is celebrating its centennial year in providing the Morgan Hill region with a diverse selection of its vineyard products.
The ambiance of Morgan Hill Cellars’ Italian-Mediterranean wine-tasting room and gift shop is elegant and California casual, exactly how owners Mike and Maryclaire Sampognaro intend it. The winery’s garden patio is a special destination for weddings and parties — or for couples and friends who want to enjoy a lazy afternoon sipping wine at a picnic table under 40-year-old grapevines entwining a redwood pergola.
The winery’s origins date back to 1913. It started as the Colombano Winery when immigrant Camillo Colombano planted Barbara rootstock he brought to Morgan Hill from his native Italy. The name changed in 1945 to the Pedrizzetti Winery after new owners purchased it. In 2006, the Sampognaros bought the property when the Pedrizzetti family retired. With the new owners came a new name for the winery as the Sampognaros rechristened it Morgan Hill Cellars.
Guests who visit the winery are often pleasantly surprised that Morgan Hill Cellars charges no wine-tasting fees. The winery offers a large selection of white and red white products as well as specialty wines such as bubbly champagnes and delicious ports.
Mike Sampognaro’s foray into winemaking began as a child in Brooklyn where his Sicilian family made wine for their personal consumption.
“The first winemaking experience I had was probably as a pre-teenager back in New York where I grew up. My dad was always making wine with his brother-in-law in the basement,” he recalled. “I remember running the press and turning the crank on the press and putting the bottles under there and collecting the homemade jug wine.”
It was also during his childhood that Sampognaro developed a love for another liquid product of grapes. One day, he went down into the basement where the family wine was stored and smelled a sweet fragrance that attracted him.
His search around the basement brought him to open a door behind which was a tangle of spiderwebs covering wine bottles. One of the caps on a gallon jug wine was corroded, letting out the tempting aroma.
“I opened the bottle to try to figure out why it smelled like that,” Sampognaro said. “I thought, ‘I’m probably going to die, but I need to taste it. It’s probably poison or something.’ So I took a swig of it and it was the most beautiful vinegar I remember ever tasting. It was drinkable, unbelievably nice-tasting vinegar.”
Today, in honor of Sampognaro’s passion, Morgan Hill Cellars sells bottles of both white and red vinegar in its gift shop.
Morgan Hill resident Jerry Smith said he often enjoys visiting the winery with his wife Lenny Smith because they always feel welcome by the owners and tasting room manager Lisa Duarte. “This is by far and away the friendliest tasting room that I’ve experienced,” Smith said. “Lisa, Maryclaire and Mike deserve a lot of credit for this hospitality. And the wines are very fine. I really like their variety of ports and dessert wines.”
