The Mountain Winery, music with a view

On your way to the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, you begin to suspect you're in for a treat. The road starts out normal enough, but then it curves more, the trees get denser, the houses spaced further apart, and the road lifts up and up until you feel yourself leaving the valley and heading solidly into the hills.

Even as you begin to suspect what's in store, the reality of it still takes your breath away. It's one hell of a view. A panoramic vista of San Jose and Silicon Valley stretches out at your feet. And there's a glass of wine in your hand.

Welcome to the Mountain Winery. It's about as California as a concert experience can get.

The winery has been hosting concerts since 1958, and the stage is set in front of a dramatic facade: a Gothic church entrance, moved there from St. Patrick's Church in San Jose, after the original church collapsed in the 1906 earthquake, set amid sandstone bricks.

We saw Zakir Hussein, Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyers play there, along with Chick Corea, and it was an amazing show. Particularly the trio - take the tabla, the banjo and a classical cellist, and the result is musical alchemy. I felt like I could have ridden to heaven on the waves of that music. And I can't imagine a better setting for it.

There are restaurants that serve dinner on the premises, but we were pretty happy bringing a picnic dinner and enjoying the tables near the parking lot. Get there early to enjoy the setting.

For more information, visit the Mountain Winery website.