June 14, 2024 – It wasn’t their first rodeo. The Santa Cruz Mountains winegrowers executed the inaugural Surf City Wine Walk with style and efficiency on Sunday, June 9.
They’ve done this sort of thing a time or two, and hopefully they’ll do it again. The lineup of wineries was far ranging (Big Basin Vineyards, Bottle Jack Winery, David Bruce Winery, Equinox Wines, Integrity Wines, Madson Wines, Margins Wine, Rexford Winery, Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards, Silver Mountain Vineyards, Sones Cellars, Ser Wines, Stockwell Cellars and Wrights Station Vineyard & Winery) and featured a tremendous variety of wines.
Where else can walk around the block and taste a Brut Rosé (Equinox), Riesling (Integrity and Rexford), Vermentino (Ser), Chenin Blanc (Margins), Viognier (Bottle Jack), Zinfandel (Rexford) and Sauvignon Blanc (Integrity and Stockwell Cellars), along with the usual bounty of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir? And might I add, where else can you find a wine called “Hedgehog White,” a most unusual take on Sauvignon Blanc, and “Hedgehog Red,” a Rosé of Tannat, both in refillable bottles? Thank you, Michael Sones!
Guided by a helpful map, it was a treasure hunt for the very diverse and enthusiastic crowd, with everyone from new parents with babes in strollers, to people on oxygen with walkers. The spectacular weather made it all the more enjoyable. The chance to stop and browse at all the fun shops on the Westside and discover new things made the event a great outing.
Highlights for me were:
2023 Ser Orange Muscat, Carrasco Vineyard, Paso Robles –Made by Nicole Walsh, this aromatically sensational wine was probably the most buzzed about wine of the day. It is the first time she’s made Orange Muscat from this vineyard in Paso Robles, which is the latest in a series of six sources Walsh has tapped for this varietal over the last 10 years. Growers keep ripping it out, due to lack of demand, so for goodness sakes, if you love it, buy some now. As lovely as the nose is—and it is a knockout—the flavors one-up the floral perfume and exotic bergamot with a full-on rush of orange zest and mandarin intensity that makes it excellent with summer fare. A screwcap guarantees its freshness.
2021 Ser Pinot Noir, Rio Del Mar Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains– It’s hard to believe that such a standout wine comes from a vineyard alongside a freeway—but Highway 1 isn’t just any freeway. Aromatics of cedar and brilliant red raspberry make this wine a wakeup call for the palate, and the smack of orange peel makes it even better.
2022 Integrity Riesling La Estancia Vineyard, Monterey– Super cool aromatics and texture get even prettier with ripe apricot, nectarine, pear and lemon oil, leading to a fine finish of apricot marmalade.
2022 Madson Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Cruz Mountains– Made in the Cole Thomas style of less is more, this wine—from vineyards in the southern part of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA—offers pleasing extract of fennel, cherry tobacco, Luden’s cherry cough drops and an astonishingly wide-napped velvet texture. This Cabernet, done in neutral oak, has the makings of that coveted “dark robe” descriptor so often used in the 1970s to describe a wine with enough depth and breadth to spread all over the palate, and to age with aplomb.
2022 Big Basin Vineyards Kimari Vineyard Chardonnay– Still trying to get used to this new name for what was the Howard Family Vineyard in Santa Cruz, but the fruit is still the same, with a classy meld of lemon, quince and orchard fruit, and that elegant mouthfeel that makes you want to wear white flannel gloves while drinking it, and never, ever directly from the bottle.
I’m partial to the 2021Old Corral Pinot Noirfrom the Big Basin Vineyards estate in Boulder Creek for its old clones and savory, woodsy warmth that curls up around your palate like a cat finding the spot between your neck and shoulders that suddenly became indispensable. With aromatics of forest floor and cedar, and flavors of cranberry and pomegranate, this wine makes your palate purr.
2019 Silver Mountain Tondre Chardonnay, Santa Lucia Highlands– Winemaker Tony Craig has been working with Tondre fruit for well over 20 years, and he’s got the oak regimen dialed in, so that the intense flavors of ripe pear and butterscotch are wrapped in pastry for a rich, warm mouthfeel.
Jerold O’Brien’s appealing2022 Silver Mountain Rosé of Pinot Noir, a saignée of all the vineyards he sources from, including Muns, his estate and Miller Hill, makes a tasty summer sipper.
One of the spots that had a big crowd the entire day wasMegan Bell’s Margins Winestasting room, which she calls her tasting cubby. Kudos to her for packing so much into a shoebox: she’s crafting upwards of a dozen wines now, making it hard to narrow down a favorite here, but the2023 Grenachereally grabbed my palate with its ripe strawberry bordering on toaster pastry with oodles of savory underpinnings to keep it from going sappy.
Bell early on established herself as a devotee of Chenin Blanc, but she’s widened her scope of interest, and is making eclectic varieties like Assyrtiko and Verdejo, both from Pierce Ranch in San Benito County. I appreciated the skin contact on the Verdejo which gave it a nice bite. Trellised very high so that sheep can graze between the rows much of the year without being able to reach the fruit and leaf zone, Paicines Ranch is a lodestone for regenerative farming. She’s extremely jazzed about getting fruit from some of the newer plantings, including Counoise and Cinsault. She has a very defined style that is characterized by early picking and minimal processing, resulting in wines that are often reticent to reveal themselves. Patience may be required.
She told us that the facility where she and James Jelks are making wine was a former apple packing facility, so it’s a huge warehouse, well set up for winemaking and storage, plus, as it turns out, big square dancing parties. Bell described the place as her “forever home.”
It’s good to hear there’s a bright spot to balance the somewhat frustrating challenges she encountered in getting her tasting room (closet) open. Ironically, it’s right next to the Fonda Felix order window on Swift Street Courtyard: two very tiny spots with a whole lot of impressive flavors, offering the quintessential taste of what makes the West End of Surf City a novel experiment.
About the author
Laura Ness
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Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
