SHARING THEIR PASSION
Perrucci family turns fruits of their labor to winemaking.
Greg Perrucci, left, whose family owns Perrucci Family Wines in the Los Gatos Hills, stands with his nephew Alec Perrucci, who has been the winemaker there since 2018. The family’s roots in the South Bay stretch back to 1905, when Greg Perrucci’s great-grandfather immigrated from Italy and settled in Little Italy in San Jose.
Perrucci Family Wines is known for its verticals, starting with the property where the family grows their grapes.
This steep hillside vineyard on Kennedy Road above Los Gatos is not just vertically inclined: It’s vertically endowed with views, a sunny Mediterranean clime and a feeling of serenity.
Most visitors here are members of the Perrucci Family wine club, which allows visitation by advance appointment.
“We love sharing our passion for wine and food,” says Greg Perrucci, a fourth-generation California farmer who has been the face of the winery brand since it launched. “It doesn’t get any better than that!”
Greg’s parents Don and Gen Perrucci live on the secluded 29-acre parcel, which boasts an impressive bonsai garden tended by Don, a woodfire pizza oven and fireplace, majestic oak trees and a small winery building. The five acres of grapes are tended by Greg, who lives across the road with his family. His two siblings, Kristin and Andy, along with their families, also live on adjacent parcels. Andy’s son, Alec, who graduated from Cal Poly and has made wine in Paso Robles (J. Lohr, Orcutt Road) and in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, took over as winemaker in 2018.
All are involved in some way in the Perrucci Family wine business. It runs in their blood.
“My great-grandfather came here from a town east of Potenza, Italy, in 1905, where they had pecan and apricot trees,” explains Greg Perrucci. “He settled in Little
Italy in San Jose, near today’s Shark Tank.”
Great-granddad naturally gravitated to the fruit orchards of Santa Clara Valley, buying property and creating a serious dried fruit packaging business. By the mid-1930s, the family had purchased MayFair and Sun Garden packing plants.
At one point, the family owned hundreds of acres of orchards and packing sheds from Yuba City to Bakersfield, along with the trucking company that delivered fruit to the processing and packing plants and then trucked the packaged goods to the rail lines, airports and other depots for distribution.
“This was true vertical integration,” Perrucci explains.” We did it to control the quality of the fruit. If our name was on the package,
it had to be good. We have the same philosophy regarding grapes.”
Perrucci hasn’t always lived in idyllic isolation. As a kid, he and his siblings lived on the family ranch on Aborn Ranch Road, surrounded by cherry trees. At one point, a huge portion of his grandfather’s land was taken to build a school across the street. While convenient, it was a bit noisy, with all its attendant playground and bell ringing activities. Their neighbors were the Mirassous, and the kids all played together. In 1974, the families partnered to build a mobile home park in the area.
Perrucci says his family decided to move out when their house was robbed.
“Literally, my mom caught the robbers in the act,” he recalls. “Back then,
nobody locked their doors; we didn’t even have keys.”
That experience led them to seek a more remote environment, and in 1973, after Perrucci’s grandfather died, his dad bought property in the Los Gatos hills.
By the mid-1990s, the fruit drying business was becoming too expensive to
operate, and they sold much of their operation to Dole. “After a quiet celebration of the fact we were finally out of the fruit packing business, the very next year we started planting grapes,” says Perrucci.
Unlike wineries that would buy fruit from other sources while their own vineyards came online, the Perruccis waited patiently for their vines to produce. “We wanted to see how our own grapes did, and how the wines turned out,” Perrucci says. “We wanted control of the product and the quality. It’s always been a hallmark of our family.”
The wines are all solid, many of them multiple award winners at major competitions. Syrah comes from a neighboring vineyard, and pinot noir, merlot and chardonnay from the Regan Vineyard in Corralitos, owned by John Bargetto. “We’ve had a great relationship for 17 years,” says Perrucci. “He farms the way I do. It’s a load off my mind.”
Perrucci Family Wines is not open regular hours, but visits can be arranged by appointment. Club members are not charged a tasting fee. Non-club members can arrange a visit by calling 408-684-6500 or emailing wines@perruccifamily.com. A minimum of four guests is required, and the fee is $10 per person for four wines. Additional wines and amenities can be negotiated.
Perrucci Family Wines is located at 15050 Kennedy Road, Los Gatos. For more information, visit https:// www.perruccifamily.com.