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Valentine's Day is awash in the color red, the taste of chocolate, the smell of roses and the sound of music. Add a little wine to enhance it all, and the result could be a Valentine's Day dinner at Testarossa Vineyards. The winery was established in 1994 by Rob and Diana Jensen of Los Altos. Recently, it moved into what once was a 19th-century Jesuit winery burrowed into the east hills of Los Gatos. After 14 years of tenancy, the landmark facility was vacated by Mirassou Winery after Gallo Wineries bought it out. La Rochelle Cellars in East San Jose handles a limited production of wine by a fifth generation of the Mirassou family.
The Jensens are inviting romantic people to celebrate their new surroundings by joining them at their first wine dinner on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, featuring Testarossa chardonnay and pinot noir wines paired with fare created by chef Justin Perez. "We've completely refurbished the dining room," says Diana Jensen, who is overseeing the dinner herself.
Guests will be greeted in the Cave Room, under an arched ceiling of stone erected in 1888. In the tasting room beyond, they will be served a glass of chardonnay along with an appetizer of baby shitake mushrooms and escargot sauteed in a Meyer pancetta (bacon) reduction. Four courses, each with wine accompaniment, will be served in the formal dining room, embellished with red roses for the occasion. Chef Perez of Restaurant O in Campbell (formerly Buca Restaurant) will offer a first course of chanterelle mushroom bisque with pan-seared foie gras and crème fraîche. Perez translates this as "an earth-rich soup with duck liver, finished in a cream with almost a sour cream tartness to it." A pinot noir will accompany the soup.
The second course allows for a little chocolate. It will be drizzled over pasta filled with beef and brie and served with a pinot noir. The third course is a double Colorado lamb chop with Fuji apple curry. "This is the best piece of lamb money can buy," Perez notes, "and there's just a hint of curry made milder by the rich and smooth double-thick sauce." He says the Bien Nacido chardonnay served with it is an unusual pairing with meat, making it all the more startling and interesting.
The fourth course is a vanilla crème brûlée made with a caramel chardonnay. A chardonnay goes with it. Reservations for the 6 p.m. dinner are limited to 100 guests at $125 each.
Valentine's Day evokes romance, and the Jensens have had their share of it. The pair met as students in electrical engineering at Santa Clara University. Their first date in 1986 at Frankie, Johnny and Luigi's, a Santa Clara Italian restaurant, was also the scene Rob chose a year later to propose. "We were just sitting there when suddenly he got down on one knee and proposed," Diana laughs. A year later they were married by a Jesuit priest in San Diego. Today, they have daughter Claire, 7, and son Nick, 10.
Their romance with the grape came in 1994 when the pair established on an acre and a half of abandoned vineyard in Los Gatos the beginning of Testarossa Vineyards. "You can't make a great wine from a mediocre product," Diana reflects, "so we found growers who are passionate about their grapes." The result is a product that wins awards for excellence.
Testarossa Vineyards, located at 300 College Ave. in Los Gatos, is open daily for tasting from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 408.354.6150, ext. 16.
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Photograph by George Sakkestad