browngeek

When I think of wine-tasting, Napa and Sonoma are the first places that come to mind. While they are beautiful and have some of my favorite wineries, the drive there is upwards of 100 minutes. That makes the wine-tasting a full day trip. I didn’t really mind that until I discovered that there are plenty of wineries right in my backyard - the Santa Cruz Mountains.

It turns out that there are about 75 wineries spread across the mountains, and the drive to most of them is under an hour! It also turns out that 50+ of the wineries participate in a “Passport Program” that allows free-tasting on four designated Saturdays a year - for a one-time $30 purchase. Very cool deal. So a large group of us went up the mountains yesterday as it was Passport Saturday.

Here are the wineries we visited-

• Cinnabar:The tasting-room is in downtown Saratoga. They were pouring a nice mix of whites and reds and a port that was made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.
• Savannah-Chanelle: This very French-sounding winery is tucked away up a hidden alley. Their whites were unimpressive. But both their Pinot Noirs more than made up for it (especially the Gonsalus label).
• Pichetti : A very crowded tasting room invited us as we walked in between horse barns. Our busy hostess poured us some nice blends known as The Pavones. The hit, however, was the white port - “Mission Angelica”. Known as the Liquid Love, it was so sweet that the recommended way to serve it is with ice and a lemon-rind!
• Fellom Ranch : This is a family-owned ranch atop some of the tallest points of the mountains. In general, I like ranch-style wineries - and since they also served some bread, cheese, hot sausages and superb views, Fellom Ranch became an instant hit. And I made it a point to tell the owners that it was my favorite winery of the day. In return for my compliments, they poured me a special tasting of their vintage Zinfandels - from 1996 and 1990! Brilliant!
• Ridge : This was the last stop of the day. Ridge was pouring some nice blends of Cabernet and Zinfandel. The hostess pointed us that some of their grapes are from 120-years old vines! That made the wines taste even better.

It was a fun trip with a fabulous group of people and some surprisingly unique wines. The best part was that it was a *half-day* trip, with plenty of the evening still open. I highly recommend the Wineries of Santa Cruz Mountains.

Popularity: 99% [?]