Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph

The former Sacred Heart Novitiate in the hills above Los Gatos was known for its vineyards and fine wine.

Picture from the Past

Novitiate once provided its 'heavenly' wine to the Valley

By John S. Baggerly

The Sacred Heart Novitiate, a school for the Jesuit priesthood from 1888 to 1968, is part of Santa Clara Valley's rich winemaking history. Today, the facility is called the Jesuit Center, and provides housing and fellowship for retired priests. Brother Norbert Korte, S.J., serves as administrator; he also often doubles as Los Gatos' Santa Claus and is an active member of the local Lions Club.

"Heavenly Wine, Devilishly Good" was the catchy line that used to appear on advertisements for Novitiate wines--with Korte's photograph gracing the ads. The potent potable has also apparently saved some lives. The Novitiate once used wine to extinguish a fire on its campus, and more than one mountaineer is said to have saved his property and perhaps stopped a mighty forest fire by pumping wine from barrels onto fires.

During the 19th century, famous wine events took place at the summit in the Santa Cruz Mountains during the many forest fires that blackened that area over the years. Emil Meyers, an early vintner at the summit, saved his property against a forest fire by spraying the flames with wine.

When the fermenting mist came in contact with heat, carbon dioxide was released, acting like a huge fire extinguisher. The story was picked up by the wire services, and Santa Cruz Mountain wine making became a national news story.

When Sacred Heart Novitiate duplicated Meyers' wine-spraying act in 1934, again the Los Gatos area was the center of a national firefighting story. For some 80 years, novices at the novitiate worked the vineyards surrounding the great school at the top of College Avenue. Today, motorists driving toward Los Gatos from the valley floor can still see the white structure in the hills. After 1968, the campus became Provincial Offices and also began the Jesuit Center.

Mirassou, another local vineyard east of Los Gatos, was threatened with extinction during a dry spell. A Mirassou family member sailing back from France, where he picked up extra grapevine clippings, was rounding the tip of South America when the ship was becalmed, and Mirassou's precious clippings were threatened with drying out. He prevailed on the ship's cook to allow him to insert the tips of the clippings into moist potatoes, and the young vines were saved.

And now a few corrections: On July 28, this space showed a photograph of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, loaned by Scott Rose. This writer failed to mention that Rose is a resident of Los Gatos and is treasurer and host of the San Jose Post Card Club.

The Aug. 4 column showed a wrecked interurban street car, with text that mentions another accident in which an interurban car jumped the tracks coming down Saratoga Avenue and ran into the local cemetery located where Double D's Sports Grille stands today. A few nights ago, KCAT aired a program in which the late Mary Foster interviewed Bill Balch, a retired local banker, who said a man was killed in the above accident and another was injured jumping from the car. Balch is a resident of The Meadows.

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