Winemaking a neighborhood tradition
By Nathan R. Huff
Making wine may be big business for some, but for a group of San Benito Way residents in Los Gatos, it's just big fun.
Every year, the group assists each other in the creation of cabernets, merlots, zinfandels or whatever variety they decide to create. Sharing equipment, manpower and experience, members of the group have crafted a number of prize-winning amateur wines.
This year, John Hannegan of C.B. Hannegan's joins the winemaking group. "I'm kind of like the new kid on the block," Hannegan says.
The veteran title is bestowed on Bob Witham, who started making wine in Mountain View in 1969. "Bob is kind of the guru for 10 or 15 winemaking fellows," Hannegan said.
"It started with myself," Witham says. "Then a neighbor came over and said, 'What are you doing? Can I do it, too?' Now there's about 15 [people involved]." The winemakers actually number closer to 20, the majority of whom are San Benito Way residents.
Grapes are purchased from Alexander Valley, Gilroy, Morgan Hill and "any other place we can scrounge any," Witham says. The group purchases somewhere between three and four tons of grapes yearly, of which Witham uses approximately a half-ton to make 30 gallons of wine.
The freshly picked grapes are run through a stemmer/crusher and then left to ferment in standard 50-gallon plastic garbage cans for several weeks. At that point, they're put in the press, and the real fun begins.
On a rainy November day, Hannegan, his wife, Patty, and fellow amateur winemaker Sue Donnelly pressed Hannegan's three garbage cans full of cabernet, but not before giving a quick tour of several of the San Benito Way residents' basements.
Marian Witham, Bob Witham's wife, doesn't drink alcohol, but plays an integral part in the yearly "wine nonsense," as she affectionately calls it. She showed off their detached shed filled to the brim with bottles of past vintages, wooden barrels of aging zinfandel, and a ribbon-covered wall. The bottles of wine bear the Witham's brand, Cat's Lap, and a label created by their daughter, which features an illustration of their former cat, Charlie, lapping at a wineglass.
"One of the hazards of being an amateur winemaker is that you drink up the product more so than the pros," Bob Witham says. However, a number of bottles by group members have avoided the corkscrew long enough to win awards in amateur winemaking competitions.
Witham has received first-place awards from Santa Cruz and Santa Clara county fairs, as well as an amateur best of show award from the state fair. But he hasn't returned to that competition--compared to the Santa Cruz County Fair, Witham says the state fair "wasn't much of a party."
Back in Hannegan's driveway, Patty and Donnelly set up the press and a pump to draw the pressed juices through a hose and down into large plastic containers in the Hannegan's basement, which will hold the wine until the creators decide whether or not to blend, before transferring the wine into barrels for aging.
As the pressing starts, the teamwork is evident. Bucketful after bucketful of grapes is thrown into the Italian-made press, as Patty fills containers one by one down below. "You can see who does all the hard work," Hannegan says, motioning to Donnelly and his wife.
This year the group is making zinfandel, cabernet, merlot and a variety of blends. Each maker has his own barrels, though they may be stored at a neighbor's, and each must choose whether or not to blend, and when to bottle. The neighbors get together to help each other with labor-intensive aspects of winemaking--moving equipment, pressing, bottling and, of course, tasting.
Aside from the fun of it all, Hannegan said the process was extremely educational. "Having a restaurant and taking people to different wineries, you think you know what you're talking about until you actually have to go and make it," Hannegan says. "Then you find out how little you really know."
For Witham, who is retired, no practical justification for the annual ritual can be made--it is simply a labor of love. "God knows I wouldn't want to do it for money."
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
