Our Story

City Lights Vineyards is a true boutique winery located in a unique growing environment in the East Foothills of San Jose California on Mount Hamilton. We organically grow and produce pure Malbec wine. Our yearly output is about 60 cases from 1500 lbs. of grapes!

The Bailey’s are not degreed Wine makers from UC Davius or the like, but self-taught vintners that have been making wine for over 20 years from very humble beginnings. Mark and Linda began their wine journey over 40 years ago when they began dating in Southern California. They loved the experience of trying different wines and made many trips to Northern California Wineries. Both are native Californians but in 1999 relocated to the Eastern Shore of Maryland living on Chesapeake Bay. It is there where their wine making path began!

In 2000, Linda gave Mark a wine making kit for Christmas and that started it all. After studying, meeting with wine makers, and taking blending and wine making classes they progressed out of kits to making wine applying what they had learned and for many years made what they liked, which at that time was rich, full-bodied Chardonnays. They bought juice from Italy, Australia and Argentina and always had a carboy batch going in their kitchen.

Their first experience with grapes happened by accident. A friend in Maryland had a few rows of vines on their property that they did nothing with. Mark and Linda asked if they could tend and harvest them. The grapes turned out to be Malbec, a bit prophetic for their wine making future.

They processed the grapes and hand pressed them. After primary and secondary fermentation and a short period of aging, the wine was terrible and very bitter. On advice from a vintner friend, they flavored it to taste with sucrose and bottled it. They tasted it each year and it continued to be bitter.

They forgot about it in their cellar for several years and one evening pulled all the bottles to drain them and reuse for their current batch of wine. Well, of course the wine had aged beautifully and had become a smooth and wonderful wine! Mark and Linda’s first lesson in the importance of “how” and “how long” a wine is aged. This would become a key element of how they processed and aged their Malbec in the future.

Fast forward to 2016 when the Bailey’s purchased the property that is now City Lights Vineyards. The home purchase came with a “wine consultant”, a local long time wine maker. At their first meeting he informed the Bailey’s that this was no longer a hobby operation, we were now farmers and be ready to work and love the grapes. The Bailey’s took their vintner knowledge to the next level reading everything they could find on the art of wine making and taking classes at Livermore wineries.

Their first harvest was in 2017 from vines pruned by the previous owner for quantity not quality. Their yield was 2500 pounds from 156 vines. In 2017 the lower vineyard vines were 15 years old. The upper vineyard vines were 13. The previous owner had left behind 2009, 10, 11 and 12 vintages and they were all over the taste spectrum. All were heavy tannin, acidic with a VERY bitter after taste.

With this as a starting point the Bailey’s began their vintner journey to produce organically grown, pure Malbec that was smooth and truly a delight to enjoy. Wine the way they enjoyed it. “Our wine making process” that follows shows how they achieved their goals for the Malbec.