Alamitos Vineyards

The Santa Clara AVA isn’t usually top of my list but I’ve been trying to not be a snob and widen my palate so when my Mother-in-Law suggested we check out Alamitos Vineyards on our recent trip down to San José, I thought it was a good idea.

Alamitos has had a recent string of good press. At the end of July it was voted Best New Winery Experience the the USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Award and got a nice write up in The Merc. It also garnered a a couple gold medals in the 2023 San Francisco Chronicle International Wine Competition. On its own it sounds like this is going to be a standout tasting but after a bit of digging you’ll realize that neither accolade is attached to much rigor.

We selected the standard tasting which included 4 pours (2 reds and 2 whites) plus the the port-style wine for $25. Unfortunately, none of these wines were very good with the exception of the 2021 Sauvignon Blanc. Upon requesting information from the pourers it’s easy to see why the wines aren’t top notch.

What kind of barrel aging do you do? We age our red wine in barrels. Is it French or American? Yes! What percentage is new or aged? Our barrels are all new and then we use them a couple times.

On the positive side, the view was lovely. The sails provided excellent shade and on a cooler day I might have loved to sit with a chilled glass of white in one of the Adirondack chairs. Unfortunately, it was 90+ degrees and no breeze so the snail’s pace service wasn’t appreciated. “Each reservation includes 60-minute outdoor wine tastings,” their website reads. Yeah, that’s up to your servers.