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Big Dog VineyardsMilpitas doesn’t have quite the ring of Napa, Healdsburg or Sonoma, but Mark Capalongan is doingis his best to put Milpitas on the winemaking mapby Stett Holbrook on Jan 18, 2010MILPITAS doesn’t quite have the ring of Napa, Healdsburg or Sonoma, but Mark Capalongan is doing is his best to put Milpitas on the winemaking map. Together with his wife, Sandy, Mark is the owner and winemaker of Big Dog Vineyards, Milpitas’ sole winery. Technically, it isn’t in Milpitas, since it’s in the hills east of the city limits, but for all purposes it’s still Milpitas, home of the Great Mall, good public schools and an abundance of outstanding Chinese restaurants. But wine country it isn’t. Or is it? Just three miles east of Interstate 680 up Calistoga Road, the scenery changes dramatically. Traffic congestion and shopping centers give way to horse stables, a golf course and rock-strewn rolling hills green from winter rains. There are a few houses and not much else. The Capalongans live on 45 acres perched atop one such hill. Behind them to the east, stretching seemingly all the way to the horizon, lies San Francisco Water District land that will never be developed. North and south are more rolling hills that are surprisingly underdeveloped given the proximity to the valley below. To the west are views of San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, the Santa Cruz Mountains and the circuit board–like density of Silicon Valley. When Capalongan first decided to have a go at grape growing, he submitted a soil sample to UC-Davis for evaluation. According to him, the university scientists were giddy about the site’s potential for growing world-class cabernet sauvignon. “There were practically jumping up and down,” he says. “I happen to like cab, and we just lucked out.” At first, he just planned to grow grapes, but Woodside Vineyards winemaker Brian Caselden encouraged Capalongan to take the plunge and start a winery. Thus Big Dog Vineyards was born. The winery takes its name from Mark and Sandy’s fondness for Saint Bernards. Cabernet (“Cab” for short) greeted me when I drove up to the Capalongans’ house. He met me at eye level. Cab weighs 210 pounds and is still something of a pup. What looks like an oversize garage next to the Capalongans’ house is the winery’s tasting room and winery. This is a family operation, so the front half is a three-car garage, too. Capalongan tells me that his wife insisted that he couldn’t build a winery without building a garage and more storage first. So he did both. Capalongan makes just two kinds of wine, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. He also makes outstanding port-style wines from the same grapes. Five acres of vines grow right behind his house, and there’s a smaller vineyard on a neighboring property about a half-mile away. A thin crust of topsoil conceals what is little more than a mountain of boulders. Because of the fast-draining soil and the fact that Capalongan is so stingy with water, the grapes must dig deep to tap into nutrients and, as a result, produce wines of great depth and intensity. The cabernet sauvignons I tasted are big wines that aren’t shy about announcing their black cherry, plum and earthy flavors, but the wines also display an elegance and integration that makes the varietal such a noble wine. Capalongan originally planted cabernet franc as a blending wine, but he was so pleased with what he got that it stands on its own. I tried the 2006 release, and while it was a bit tightly wound around a tannic core, the wine still displayed delicious black pepper and perfumed, floral notes. But it’s Big Dog’s cabernet sauvignon that really shines. I liked the 2006 Cinq Chevaux Cabernet Sauvignon, but it was the 2006 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon that really spoke to me. It’s a dark, inky wine. I picked up flavors and textures that were more lush and plush than what came from the Cinq Chevaux vineyard just a short distance away. It’s a real testament to the terroir of the vineyard and to the Capalongans’ lonely Milpitas winery. Big Dog Vineyards’ wines are available online at bigdogvineyards.com and by appointment at the winery. The winery also holds a few special events each year that are open to the public. by Stett Holbrook on Jan 18, 2010 |
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