In Santa Clara Valley, 111-Year-Old Vines Lie Just Beyond the Outlet Malls
Besson's Grenache / Photo by Alex Krause When wine grapes were planted in 1910 on what’s known today as Besson Vineyard, vineyards sprawled throughout the Santa Clara Valley, from the redwood slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains to the grassy foothills of East San Jose. But suburban development steadily swallowed this landscape, and only the most stubborn vines remained. These gnarled Grenache vines, located just west of the outlet malls of Gilroy, were purchased in 1949 by the Bessons, a family of shoemakers originally from Savoie, France who owned a Zinfandel vineyard up the road, which sti...
Source: winemag.com