There are close to fifty vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA. We’ve all heard of the Pisoni, Garys’, and Rosella’s vineyards planted by the Pisoni and Franscioni families 20-30 years ago, and maybe their more recent plantings; the Soberanes and Sierra Mar vineyards. Also we have the Sleepy Hollow vineyard of Arcadian fame. This handful of vineyards have received a lot of press over the years, but I’ve heard next to nothing about the other forty or so vineyards in the SLH.
Where does all the fruit from those other vineyards go? Are these vineyards just not as good as the ones we know? Are there any hidden gems out there?
There are very few tasting rooms in the SLH although it’s a short drive from Monterey/Carmel, I wonder why this is?
I recently had a Santa lucia highlands Carlisle Syrah recently that was quite tasty
I would say there are other vineyards in SLH that produce fruit that’s high quality but just not as well-known. Off the top of my head, for starters:
Ed Kurtzman makes wine from Peterson Vineyard for August West, Sandler, and Mansfield-Dunne. It may go to other producers as well but not sure. Vineyard owner John Peterson is a partner in August West.
Tondre Grapefield fruit has gone to Testarossa, Morgan, Bernardus, Wrath, Savannah-Chanelle, Coterie, a number of others (including the Tondre label).
KW Ranch (used to be called Fairview Road Ranch) has provided fruit to Wrath, Broc, Eno, Coterie, and others.
A search using a vineyard name on the Cellartracker website will give you very good info who has made vineyard-designated wines made from various SLH sites. There will be other cases where the vineyard is not designated on the label so it won’t be of much help in those cases. Some individual vineyard websites (for those that have websites) may provide info on who gets their fruit as well.
