A Tale of Two Santa Cruz Estates
1/25/19 -
Today we would like to showcase two of our favorite producers, one a legend, the other a young maverick, from one of the most interesting areas in California: the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Santa Cruz Mountains have an odd identity. The region is not remote, being an hour's drive south of San Francisco, nor is it considered undiscovered, or a backwater; some of California's most famous producers are located here. Yet it feels worlds away from the buzz of Napa or Sonoma. The vineyards and wineries here seem to exist in another astral sphere. High up in the mountains, nestled among redwoods and ethereal, windswept chapparal, one is more likely to find zen retreats or nature reserves than vineyards.
There is a reason for this sense of isolation: when it was created as an AVA in 1981, the Santa Cruz Mountains was the first whose area was determined by altitude. There are no "valley floor" vineyards here. Many of the vineyard sites are extraordinarily steep, at or above the fog line, extending to ridgetop vineyards perched at up to 2,600 feet above sea level. The topography is so intense and variegated that in an appellation encompassing 480,000 acres there are only 1,300 acres under vine. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon each make up about a quarter of that acreage, with the final quarter belonging to everything else.
As is true for much of the rest of California, these three grape types are critically important for this region, but also, these mountains have been critical in the history of these three grapes in California. Perhaps the best place to start is with our first winery on offer today, Mount Eden Vineyards. Founded by famed viticultural pioneer Martin Ray in 1943, Mount Eden produced its first Pinot and Chardonnay in 1945: the longest continuous bottlings of these grapes by a single producer in the state. One of the first small wineries that focused above all on quality, this steep, mountain terrain and intense climate do not give winemakers and proprietors Jeffrey & Ellie Patterson an easy time. The reward is wines of incredible tension and vitality. Today we have some offerings from 2014, roundly considered a difficult year, particularly because of the intensity of the extreme drought experienced that summer. While yields were incredibly low, the resultant wines are magnificent. The 2014 Estate Chardonnay is remarkable in its length, its subtle shifting dynamics that scintillate between weight and electricity, and its ability to weave an interplay between ripe, classically California fruit and dense minerality. The 2014 Estate Pinot Noir is powerful yet restrained and elegant, with raspberry and blackberry fruit mixing with finely grained tannins wrapped in hints of baking spice, chocolate, and a reticent, dense florality that permeates the whole affair. Lastly, their 2014 Estate Cabernet is a massive, brooding wine. These mountains provide the state with some of its most powerful Cabernets, and this is no exception. Tightly structured, with searing tannins, this is a wine that could be mistaken at first glance for a Bordeaux. That is, until its beautiful sunny California fruit begins to show through with a note of classic bay laurel, the beguiling scent that reminds me of my visits to the redwood forests in these mountains.
On the other end of the spectrum we have the wines of Ghostwriter, made my Kenny Likitprakong, one of the star young winemakers in California. The label was named in response to Kenny's belief that the true author of a wine is the site, its climate, and its history. A winemaker can be a lively storyteller, but should pursue telling the story of another being: the spirit of a single site. In addition, Ghostwriter is also made in the stylistic tradition of more highly structured, acid-driven wines which have been made in this area for over half a century. The 2016 Chardonnay demonstrates this with aplomb, being much more structured and mineral-driven than many found today in sunny California, with notes of lemon pith, bosc pear, and a backbone of acidity to match. The 2016 Santa Cruz Pinot Noir is meant to be a stylistic overview of the appellation, with tart cranberry character, baking spice, and earthy, herbal minerality suffusing the whole palate. The 2014 Belle Farms Pinot Noir is a step up in size and muscle, and also the final vintage made of grapes from this vineyard. The wine is more intense, a little funkier, and able to cellar for up to ten years. Lastly, we have their 2014 Bates Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon, which is a Cabernet straight out of the seventies, more structurally driven, with its fruit more integrated into the whole, and the potential to cellar as well as some of the classics from thirty or forty years ago! Andrew Farquhar
