Santa Cruz wine country may be less known than that of the Napa Valley, but it has a wide selection of excellent wineries. Santa Cruz wineries tend to be more intimate and low key, perfect for first timers.
Bonny Doon Vineyard, Santa Cruz’s Most Creative Wine Maker
Bonny Doon is a California winery with personality and a must stop on any trip up Highway 1. Mailing list subscribers have received everything from X-Files-esque catalogues filled with secret paranormal memorandum, to the oenophiles version of Dante’s Divine Comedy (called Da Vino Commedia). Tasters should not leave without trying Le Cigare Volant, a rich combination of mourvédre, syrah and grenache. It is perhaps the best wine they produce and a local favorite.
McHenry Vineyard, A Must Stop on Passport Days
Four times a year, the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association holds passport days. Participants purchase a passport, from any participating winery, for about $30. The passport is good at dozens of local tasting rooms. Wineries missed on that day can be visited on the next passport day.
Many local wineries are only open for these special events, McHenry included. Hopping around from winery to winery there is no place more recommended, by both the people tasting and the people pouring, than McHenry. McHenry specializes in that most quintessential of California wines, the pinot noir.
Beauregard Vineyards, Wine Tasting on the Wharf
While there is nothing quite like driving winding roads through redwood covered mountains on a wine tasting adventure, those who can’t find a designated driver might try one of the excellent tasting rooms in town. Beauregard is located on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf where visitors can taste their award-winning chardonnays surrounded by the site of the rocky coast and the sound of the wharfs most popular residents, sea lions.
Storrs Winery, A Taste of Wine in the Historic Old Sash Mill
Another in-town tasting room is Storrs. Tucked away in a an old mill resurrected as multi-use business and living space, Storrs provides much more than the usual selection of chardonnays and pinot noirs. Particularly worth a taste are the Viento Vineyard Gewürztraminer and the Central Coast Zinfandel.
Details
Bonny Doon Vineyard, 831-425-4518, 10 Pine Flat Road, Santa Cruz, CA
McHenry Vineyard, 530-756-3202, 6821 Bonny Doon Road, Santa Cruz, CA
Beauregard Vineyards, 831-425-7777, 55B Municipal Wharf, Santa Cruz, CA
Storrs Winery, 831-458-5030, 303 Portrero Street, No. 35, Santa Cruz, CA
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