Testarossa Winery is helping support the Santa Clara University Solar Decathlon team through the sale of a limited release Chardonnay. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of a specially-labeled 2010 Testarossa Chardonnay benefit the team’s Radiant House Project.
“This is a fun and exciting endeavor for us,” comments Testarossa owner Rob Jensen. “We have a very personal connection with the team, as our son Nick is an Engineering student at SCU and is helping to build the house. He’s putting into practice all the experience gained doing construction odd-jobs around the winery during his school breaks!”
SCU Solar Decathlon Team Advisor Professor James Reites, S.J., remembers that “…as a young Jesuit, I picked grapes on the hills behind the current Testarossa Winery and worked there during the winemaking season. I’m very happy to be teamed up with Testarossa and the long tradition behind it.”
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are attractive, cost-effective, and energy efficient. Santa Clara University’s 2013 “Radiant House” team is comprised of qualified students from several disciplines; they are guided by faculty members. The group is fortunate this year to be partnering with students and faculty from the University of San Francisco’s Architecture Program, who are lending their experience in design of low-energy use, sustainable buildings.
Testarossa and its owners have a long history with the Jesuit university of Silicon Valley. Rob and Diana Jensen met at SCU as undergrads in the Electrical Engineering program. And when their small winery business needed to expand, Testarossa moved into the historic Novitiate Winery in Los Gatos. The priest who married Rob and Diana, John Geary, S.J. went to seminary at the Novitiate in the 1930s. And it was Geary’s father, an architect, who first expanded the winery after Prohibition.
“The education and opportunities we received at Santa Clara University not only brought us together, but set the table for our success as business owners,” says Diana Jensen. We are proud to be able to give a bit back to the University.”
Only 100 cases of the limited, “Radiant House” Chardonnay are available. It sells for $20 in the Testarossa tasting room and online at Testarossa.com
More information on the Santa Clara Radiant House project can be found at sd13.scu.edu
