This was a perfectly natural statement, given the tangible evidence, but isn't correct. The winery building may be pushing a century, age-wise, but it doesn't go back to 1852. That's the year shown over the door, and years emblazoned on buildings almost always have to do with date of construction. Also, there's Paul Masson's name in big letters over the front of the building, and he wasn't born until 1859. He died in 1940. The industry wasn't producing prenatal wine back then any more than it is today, so I think some explanation is in order. I wrote a column on this almost eight years ago, but I think it's time for a repeat.

First, there's that year 1852 to deal with. It's true that the Paul Masson wine and champagne labels--and I don't know if there is still a Paul Masson product--used to say "since 1852," or words to that effect. It's also true that the winery is State Historical Landmark 733, with a sign that reads in part: "premium wines and champagne have flowed continuously since 1852 from the winery that bears the name of Paul Masson ... Twice partially destroyed by earthquake and fire, the original sandstone walls still stand ... "

Eighteen fifty-two was the year one Etienne Thee planted a vineyard south of San Jose, near new Almaden. Thee had a daughter, who married Charles Lefranc, and the son-in-law ultimately took over the wine business. Lefranc had a daughter who, in 1888, married a worker in his vineyard named Paul Masson, who became a partner and manager of the enterprise. The wine was, for a time, marketed under the name Lefranc & Masson.

So, where does the Mountain Winery come in? According to "Vineyards in the Sky," a biography of famed vintner Martin Ray, who might be called a protégé of Paul Masson, the master got fragments of walls from old wineries in Los Gatos and Saratoga and hauled wagonloads of coarse sand and stones from nearby creek beds. When the main structure was finished, Masson wanted some touch of elegance. He found it in the façade of the (1906) earthquake-ruined St. Patrick's Cathedral in San Jose, so he had the remnants brought up and restored to form the entrance to his winery.

My own recollection of the Mountain Winery has to do with the night in July 1941 when the place burned in what was believed to have been an incendiary fire. I remember looking into that flaming interior and seeing wine--or was it champagne?--bubbling in the vats. Also it was running in rivulets down the hillside. Spectacular is the word for its near demise. But now, it's good to see the winery in its enhanced use. Just forget that 1852 over the doorway.

Changing the subject somewhat, I see where the Saratoga City Council has given the OK to Starbucks to put one of its coffee emporiums on the corner of Big Basin way and Saratoga-Los Gatos Road. It is to be hoped that somehow this will stimulate commercial activity in the Village, which it is in sore need of it.

As is my wont, I think back to former times, in this case when that corner was the site of an associated Flying A gas station, one of four such facilities in the Village; our gas stations and three auto-repair garages. You didn't have to drive over a mile to get a lube job, and you could fill your tank for what a gallon of gas costs today. Of course, this was at a time when $40 a week was pretty good pay. Still, on that retrospective kick, and I've written about this before, the economic climate of the Village business district didn't used to be of special concern. We had four grocery stores, all offering home delivery; a couple of drug stores, one with a soda fountain; and a blacksmith shop, lumber yard, hardware store, dry goods store and a shoe repair shop. Oh, yes. Back in the hills there was a Mountain Winery, built considerably after 1852.