Silicon Valley mayors will be stomping grapes at Italian Family Festa

Being a politician is a mixed bag. Sure, a degree of authority and a certain amount of respect come with the job, but you’ve also got to deal with all the gripes and happily pose at all those ribbon cutting ceremonies.

But now and then you get to have some fun. That should be the case this Saturday when San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Milpitas Mayor Carmen Montaro take part in the age-old tradition of grape stomping at the Italian Family Festa in San Jose.

With Lissa Kreisler, host of KCAT-TV’s “Community Stories,” serving as emcee, the trio of city leaders will do their best Lucy and Ethel impersonations by jumping into tubs of grapes and crushing them with their bare feet. It’s officially a competition, though it’s tough to say who has an advantage unless somebody’s hiding grape-crushing experience that’s not on their LinkedIn pages.

Now, I would expect that Montaro and Gillmor wear heels more often than Mahan does, so they may have a foot up on him when it comes to enduring discomfort. On the other hand, the San Jose mayor did just win an election last year and never misses an opportunity to tell people how many doors he knocked on, so you can bet he’s got a sure step. No matter who wins, you can expect a messy contest.

And don’t get jealous, as this activity ain’t just for the political elite. Anybody can sign up at the Grape Stomp Stage at History Park, where the Italian Family Festa is taking place Saturday and Sunday. There’ll be multiple heats both days, starting at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

There’s more going on than fancy footwork, too, with wine tasting, a pizza-dough-tossing demonstration, music and dancing all day and plenty of food — including meatball and sausage sandwiches, polenta, spaghetti, lobster, cannoli and Tony & Alba’s pizza. You can check out all the offerings at www.italianfamilyfestasj.org.

MESSAGE IN THE BOTTLES: Kevin Ferguson, author of the forthcoming book, “Rain on the Monte Bello Ridge: A Memoir About Health, Aging and Winemaking,” will be talking to the Mountain View Historical Association on Aug. 6 about local winemaking history. It’s a subject he’s familiar with as his maternal grandfather was Mario Gemello, the longtime owner of Gemello Winery in Mountain View.

Residents in the area today might be familiar with the name from Gemello Park, but Ferguson notes that the winery — which opened in 1934 — was part of a 31-acre ranch that included an 18-acre vineyard. Mario Gemello ran the award-winning winery until he retired in 1982 and sold it to his niece, Sandy Obester, who also ran the Obester Winery in Half Moon Bay.

Ferguson learned much of the winery history when he moved back to the Bay Area from Las Vegas when his grandfather was battling prostate cancer in the early 2000s. “That’s when my grandfather shared with me an old cassette tape made in the Seventies of his father telling tales of the old days of Mountain View,” he wrote. “It unlocked a treasure trove of stories of my great grandfather’s emigration from Italy, his struggles during Prohibition and the launch of Gemello Winery in the depths of the Great Depression. I realized this was a story that needed to be shared.”

You can hear the rest of the story at the 2 p.m. talk, taking place at 157 Moffett Blvd. in Mountain View. Get more information at www.mountainviewhistorical.org.

ANIMAL TRACKS?: Caltrain certainly had a good weekend. In addition to providing much-needed service to Taylor Swift fans attending the Levi’s Stadium concerts Saturday and Sunday, more than 4,000 people showed up Saturday at Diridon Station in San Jose to check out Caltrain’s new electrified trains. The sleek-looking cars should be a pleasure to ride when they start rolling through the Peninsula in 2024.

But I’m tickled by the acronym for the cars, known as Electrical Multiple Units or EMUs. The marketing potential is seemingly endless: “Why drive when you can take an EMU?” “Caltrain’s EMUs really fly” and “See you on the EMU.”