Big Dog Vineyards: Winemaking in Milpitas

Most wine lovers in the Bay Area are familiar with the vineyards in Napa. However, in this year’s San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, a “Best of Class” and Gold Medal winner was from the South Bay: Big Dog Vineyards. How can a family operated vineyard in the South Bay successfully compete with those big vineyards in a nationwide competition? Please follow me into the hills just east of Milpitas to find the story of a special winemaker, Mark Capalongan.

From Engineer to Winemaker: In the mid-1990s, Mark Capalongan bought a ranch with 50 acres in the hills east of Milpitas. One day, a friend of his, who has been making wine for 30 years, came up to his place, looked around, and said that this location would be perfect for growing grapes. Soils and weather data were sent to UC Davis, the biggest wine school in California. The results confirmed this as a perfect location for growing Cabernet wines. Convinced by his friend, Capalongan planted a total of five acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc mostly on the hilltop pasture behind the house. Over the years the vines have been carefully tended for quality over quantity and the low-yielding hilltop vineyard produces much of the quality contained in the finished wines.

Capalongan has been growing grapes since 1996. In 2001, he brought in his first grape harvest, and sold it to his winemaker friend. The resulting wines were surprisingly good, so after that, Mark built a small winery to make the wine on location.

Making wine takes a series of processes, such as de-stemming, crushing, fermentation, barrel aging, and bottling. Mark learned how to make wine from a variety of sources including UC Davis and other local winemakers, but mostly from his own personal experience. He feels that every vineyard is different, and that each has its own personality, just as people do. The subtleties of some varietals may sometimes take years to discover. Each year he learns something that helps him the following year, in both the way he grows the grapes and the way he makes the wine. “The process evolves with time and that ongoing experience is part of the unique terroir of this vineyard,” he said.

Winemaking is fun for Capalongan because, first, it is quite different from his regular job. Second, making wine involves process and analysis as well as sensory evaluation. For instance, how does one control the flavor or bouquet of a wine? There are lots of measurements to be made. One example is the acidity. In finished wine, there is a balance between sugar and acid. Mark makes measurements of acidity, so he can adjust it up and down to achieve a certain ratio. But the ratio is something he learned from a book, which is still only a reference point. In Mark’s opinion, how the wine expresses itself in terms of the aroma and taste is more important. His wife Sandy, who has a very good palate and sense of taste, also assists this part of the process; she helps with some of the final winemaking decisions.

A Fun Place for Local Residents: The vineyard not only brings enjoyment to Mark’s family, but also to local residents. The first weekend of each month, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., there is a free wine tasting at Mark’s ranch where the wines are available for purchase directly from the source. During summer, he also invites some local bands to play at his patio, for entertainment and even dancing. When harvest season comes, friends and customers sometimes help with the harvest. You can volunteer for bottling if you want to learn more about how to make wine.

This is the first weekend of April, and the winery is open. It is a great time to invite some good friends and try this year’s “Best of Class” Port Wine and “Gold Medal” Cabernet Sauvignon at Mark’s patio. World-class wines are as close as the hills of Milpitas.