Discover Gemello Winery's Legacy at Italian Fest

Uncover the gripping and extraordinary legacy of the Gemello Winery at History Park on August 3.

👋 Hello, I’m Kevin Ferguson, author of 🍷 Rain on the Monte Bello Ridge,🍷 my forthcoming memoir about health, aging and winemaking. (Read the origin story of the book.) 🍇 The Centenarian Playbook is my newsletter, which features longevity tips and stories from Grandma Kay’s long life. It also includes stories of the Gemello Winery, which her late husband, Mario, ran for nearly half a century. 📖 I’m sure you’ll find my maternal grandparents are quite lovable characters. You can subscribe by clicking on this handy little button.

This newsletter is published twice a month, on the first and third Mondays. However, for July, this is a bonus issue. Your welcome!

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Gemello Talks Come Full Circle

A year ago, I gave my first speech on the 1934 Gemello Winery launch, rising from the ashes of the Great Depression. Sixty or so people came to the event, hosted by the Mountain View Historical Association.

A week or so before, I tipped off San Jose Mercury News columnist Sal Pizarro, who included it as part of an Italian-themed column. He led it with a story about Silicon Valley mayors jumping into a tub of grapes for a Lucy-and-Ethel-style grape stomping competition at the 41st annual Italian Family Festa, a two-day festival that drew about 20,000 people to downtown San Jose that same weekend.

Next, Pizarro in his column teased my speaking event, which he titled, “Message in the Bottles.”

After my speech that Sunday afternoon in August, I was approached by an audience member named Kristen Fuller. She happened to be a Los Altos History Museum docent. “You have to share that story with the Los Altos History Museum,” she told me.

The Gemello Winery story was certainly a relatable one for the Los Altos community as well. Los Altos, after all, was a bedroom community to the Gemello Winery. My grandparents, Mario and Kay Gemello, moved to Los Altos fifty years ago. Grandma Kay, now a widow, still lives there. She turned 103 last month.

Fuller informed me that the museum had just launched a series of “Neighborhood Block Parties,” an event for neighbors to meet each other and listen to talks about the history of their community. 

That idea was right in line with my talk about the Gemello Winery. The Gemello Neighborhood borders Los Altos, and is home to the Gemello Park and Gemello Village. Both were built on part of the land that the winery resided on until its closure in 1990.

Fuller worked with museum staff to coordinate a Gemello Winery history talk, which I gave in November.

This talk also brought out about 60 people. Many of them had great memories of the winery. Among the attendees included a lady named Chris Hudson, who happened to be a member of the Italian American Heritage Foundation (IAHF), the group that organized the grape-stomping Italian Festival in San Jose.

Hudson put me in touch with board member Ken Borelli, who helped coordinate a Gemello History talk at a February IAHF luncheon, which included a Piedmont-themed menu in honor of the Northern Italian region from where my great grandfather was born.

Other speaking engagements for me followed, including one at Vidovich Vineyards, located at the top of the Montebello Ridge in Cupertino, the very wine region of Grandpa Mario’s origin story.

A couple months later, Borelli reached out and asked if I’d like to speak at the 42nd Annual Italian Festival, where among other events, Silicon Valley mayors will be in another fierce battle of a grape-stomping competition.

I am honored to have been given a 2 pm, August 3, speaking slot on the Cultural Stage in History Park of San Jose.

Come for my speech and for the Italian culture consisting of music, food, wine tasting as well as arts and crafts!

Italian Festival Talk: Time & Location

Mark your calendar: I’ll be sharing the Gemello Winery Story in San Jose

Location: Cultural Stage, History Park, 1650 Senter Road, San Jose, CA.

When:  2 p.m. - 2:45 p.m., Saturday, August 3, 2024.

Cost: Free 

Coming next week: The Great Prohibition Caper!

The story of how two brothers with a local bootlegging wine operation outwitted federal inspectors.

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