It was a pleasant February 13th evening, the day before Valentine’s Day, and the streets of Campbell were alive with music as hundreds of wine lovers strolled through this unique small downtown area in the heart of Silicon Valley. Twenty-four Bay Area wineries set up shop in most of the interesting stories along the main street welcoming in visitors to sample their wines and explore the stores.
The Wine Walk was a great opportunity to not only learn about local winemakers, but also to learn about this unique area of Silicon Valley. The compact four-block long downtown offers visitors and shoppers a wide range of opportunities including restaurants, art galleries, antique stores, boutiques, toy shops, hardware stores and even a funeral parlor and museum. Having visited several Wine Walks in the area, Campbell offered a large number of wineries and participation by most of the businesses in the area. Yet it was easy to sample the wines along Campbell Avenue while checking out the stores.
All of the wineries had nice selections of wines but there were a few that stood out. Sones Cellars were serving up their 2010 Cancion del Mar, a white blend consisting of Pinot Gris, Torrontes, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc. This wine has a great aroma and tastes delicious. They also had their Zinfandel which had great red and dark fruit aromas and flavors. They were serving up at Import Connections, a classic car dealer, so watching vintage Ferrari and Mercedes Benz while sipping fine wine makes for an enjoyable time.
Regale Winery and Vineyard provided their 2008 Pinot Noir and 2007 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at Toys, Toys, Toys. The store is a fabulous toy store with many items that you would not find elsewhere. Perfect place for the special gift. The Pinot Noir was a great representation of Santa Cruz Mountain Pinot with nice red fruit flavors and spices.
Coterie Cellars was sharing their wines at City Farms, a new store in downtown Campbell. City Farms is dedicated to the urban farmer with books, feed and equipment for putting together your own backyard farm. Coterie was serving their 2009 Roussanne from Kings Corner in Russian River Valley, the 2009 Pinot Noir from Sarahlee’s Vineyard in Russian River Valley and the 2009 Syrah from Fiddletown. All three wines were delicious and the servers were very knowledgeable about their wines.
Fortino Winery, outside the Campbell Furniture Gallery was serving their award-winning Mirabelle blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Carignane. It just won a Best in Class award from the 2013 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
Bargetto Winery was located in Kaleido Lamps store, a truly fantastic place. As you enter the store you are enveloped by a kaleidoscope of colors from a wide variety of lamps, you will have to visit this store to believe the colors. Bargetto served their 2010 Chardonnay and 2011 Old Vine Zinfandel.
Jazz Cellars was at Gridley Company, a kitchen and interior design store. You can always count on Jazz Cellars to provide some great wine and they lived up to their reputation here. They were serving the 2010 Rhapsody, a Marsanne/Roussanne blend from the Russian River Valley, 2009 Zinfandel from Amador County, 2007 Syrah from Las Madres Vineyard in Carneros, and the 2007 Petite Sirah from Eaglepoint Ranch in Mendocino County.
The Downtown Campbell Business Association will be hosting their next Wine Walk near the end of September. In the meanwhile, be sure to visit Downtown Campbell, with plenty of parking, many interesting shops and eateries and a step back in time to when downtown really met something! There is not enough time to list all the shops that hosted this great collection of wineries, so you will have to visit the area for yourself.
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