Published in the April 30 – May 13, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Marty Cheek
As a member of Morgan Hill’s Tourism Alliance, I’ve been closely watching the development of the Santa Clara Valley Wine Trail over the last year. This project when completed will start drawing travelers as viticulture visitors to Morgan Hill and the South Valley region to sample glasses of vino from the many excellent wineries we are blessed with. It will not only add prestige to our region for our high quality, award-winning wines, it will help build our local economy as people come for the wine and stay to dine – and also shop at our local merchants.
A major bridge to making the wine trail a reality was crossed April 15 when the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the installation of way-finding signage along Watsonville Road and other rural thoroughfares that will guide motorists to the nearly 30 wineries in the South Valley region.
The road signage will also help wineries in Los Gatos, Saratoga, and Cupertino promote Santa Clara Valley vineyards. This will help us as a county emulate other Northern California wine regions that have successfully brought in tourists, such as Livermore, Paso Robles, Napa and Sonoma.
Let’s raise our glasses of wine in toasting the many people who made this wine trail happen. Among them is Morgan Hill dentist Jon Hatakeyama who took an active role in encouraging local leaders in Gilroy and Morgan Hill to become advocates of the project. District 1 county board member and president of the board Mike Wasserman also provided strong direction in getting the wine trail project through the bureaucratic maze.
Photo courtesy Santa Clara County
A sample of one of about 70 winery location signs that will be placed on roads throughout the South Valley region, helping people find local wineries.
Mike Sampognaro, the winemaker at Morgan Hill Cellars, and Greg Richtarek, director of marketing at Guglielmo Winery, were two members of The Association of Wineries of Santa Clara Valley who played active roles in moving the wine trail forward. Staff with Morgan Hill’s city government were also instrumental.
With the county’s Roads and Airports Department’s installation of the wine signage by summer, the hope is that the South Valley region will gain recognition for the high quality of its wine. As our reputation for wine grows around the Bay Area and the state, people driving along Highway 101 will no doubt take the time to take an off-ramp along the freeway and follow the signs through the South Valley countryside, discovering the pastoral beauty of our region as they sample wines at the vineyards.
My hope is that the wineries will encourage the people who stop for a taste to also try out our excellent restaurants. Morgan Hill’s downtown district has over the last decade grown into a true Bay Area dining destination. Connoisseurs of quality food come from as far away as San Francisco and Berkeley to enjoy our world-class restaurants. Relaxing after a meal, they stroll our downtown, browsing in our boutiques and other shops. They might also want to stay for one of our summer evening concerts such as the Morgan Hill Downtown Association’s Thursday Night Music Series on Third Street and Monterey Road, or the Friday Night Music Series put on by the Chamber of Commerce at the Downtown Amphitheater. And if the wining and dining draw them long enough to our community for an overnight stay, they’ll add to our local economy by enjoying a night in one of our hotels.
The members of the Tourism Alliance know that winery road signage is only the first step to making the South Valley region a destination for visitors. We’ve also been actively discussing creating a tag-line or slogan for the Morgan Hill region to help in the branding of the tourism marketing process. We have come up with many ideas, but right now, we’re still in the process of figuring out what Morgan Hill’s identity as a community truly is. We seem to be a hybrid of Silicon Valley sophistication and rural, small-town friendliness.
How to package that unique quality in a single catchy statement that sticks in people’s minds is the next stage in developing our position as a destination for tourists.
