For more than a decade now, Testarossa Vineyards has enjoyed the honor of handcrafting our small lot wines in the fourth oldest continuously operating winery in California, the historic Novitiate Winery (pronounced no-vish-ut) in downtown Los Gatos. The winery was originally built in 1888 by Northern Italian Jesuit Fathers and Brothers from the college at Mission Santa Clara (now Santa Clara University) as a means to fund their new seminary college built on the grounds the same year. The term Novitiate simply translates to "house of the novices," the name used for seminary students. For nearly 100 years, the Jesuits made altar wines, as well as sweet, fortified wines at the Novitiate Winery. The Novitiate Winery was best known for its famous fortified Black Muscat dessert wine (similar to a tawny port), which was a perennial gold medal winner at the annual California State Fair.

The original 19th Century, three-floor, gravity-flow winery is still in use today to make Testarossa wines. However, the original structure is now mostly hidden from view by the many expansions the winery went through during the first half of the 20th Century. Ironically, but not surprisingly, the demand for Church altar wine production skyrocketed during Prohibition (1919-1933), and the winery and adjoining vineyards more than doubled in size during this period. With the repeal of Prohibition, the winery continued to grow through the 1950s, as did the number of students, who were also recruited to be volunteers in the vineyards and winery. By the late 1950s, over 100,000 cases of Novitiate wine was produced at the winery.

With the advent of the 1960s, things started to decline at the old winery. The nearly century old vines were past their prime production years, and costly replanting was needed. The seminary population was also beginning to decline thus, it was decided to shut down the seminary college in Los Gatos and move the students to Santa Barbara in 1968. At this same time California's wine industry began to boom and the interest in fortified and sweet dessert wines gave way to a strong interest in varietal labeled, dry table wines. Sadly, in 1986 the Jesuits shut down their Novitiate Winery brand, ending an amazing 98 year run. During the better part of the next decade, the old winery was leased to two different wineries, which both quietly went out of business.

But in 1997, a new renaissance was born at the old winery. That year, Rob & Diana Jensen, moved their then four year old fledgling, barely known wine brand, Testarossa, to the old Novitiate, where they made just under 4,000 cases of small lot Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Every year since, Testarossa has invested in repairing and improving the once old and neglected facility and every year, Testarossa wines have gotten more and more consistently outstanding. In 2003, in conjunction with Testarossa's 10th anniversary, the old Tasting Room underwent a major restoration, and is now open to the public seven days per week. Demand for Testarossa wines has never been higher, but the temptation to dramatically ramp up production, at the expense of quality, has never been a consideration. By 2005, Testarossa wine production has crept up to approximately 14,000 cases with more than half of the annual production being sold directly from the winery.

Please come and enjoy the rich Novitiate Winery history display in the entrance cave to the winery and come in to taste a wide arrange of Testarossa's outstanding limited production wines.