Massive Magical Santa Cruz Mountain tasting, with 100 point Sutter Home

WINE TALK
21

ill be pouring at this! Best SCM event of the year, more wines than most would hope to taste

looks like today is the last day to get early bird pricing too

22

Iā€™ll be there as will Wes and Tom P (Little Cloud).

I REALLY hope it can be held outside. When it has to be indoors, the two smaller rooms downstairs get rock concert loud. If thatā€™s the case, Iā€™ll spend the first hour (have an early entry ticket) in those rooms before all attendees are allowed in.

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23

Hi Mark,

I am also thinking of doing an SCM tasting, possibly late this year, with a very specific theme. I discussed this briefly during the tasting with some of the locals. Iā€™ll let you know if it starts to come together. Maybe we can coordinate unless your proposed tasting is already set in stone.

24

yeah and since new laws went into place forcing all wineries in the region to be a part of the Wines of the Santa Cruz Mountains organization, the list of participants is larger than ever. Lets hope for good weather because that event room was PACKED last year

25

Sounds like an amazing tasting! I love the wines of the Santa Cruz Mountains. So many unique vineyards and producers.

26

my favorite stat is that the SCM is almost 500,000 acres but less than 2000 are planted to vineyard. Tiny patches spread all throughout

27

The Grand Tasting is a great event. Worth traveling to. One of the fun things about our region with so many small producers is the winemakers and their winemaking staff will be pouring at most of the tables.

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28

ā€œMy theory is that if it werenā€™t so difficult to navigate, it would surpass Napa as the best wine region in California.ā€

Iā€™ve been thoroughly enjoying some more in-depth exploration of Santa Cruz wines for the last 6 months or so. Iā€™m curious about your theory. Could you explain difficult to navigate? Do you mean literally getting around? Or quality variation of producers? Or variety of styles / terroirs? Or something elseā€¦

29

I think he means literal driving around. there are wineries that are 2 miles apart but take 30 min to drive to. there are a few clusters of wineries near each other in certain parts, but a lot of wineries would be difficult to visit on the same day

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30

I think because itā€™s defined by elevation it can be hard to get from winery to winery and vineyard to vineyard. The AVA is in 3 counties and from the coast to more inland, roads can be steep and curvy. Many vineyards are smaller and tucked away in the gulches. Others have mentioned to me that the industry isnā€™t as visible from the roads as somewhere like Napa or Sonoma. Roads arenā€™t usually lined with vineyards like if you were driving up the Napa Valley or through Sonoma and Geln Ellen. The wines can be amazing though, world class wines in many varieties. It seems like a higher number of wineries have historically been 1 man operations and when they retire, the winery goes with them.

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31

Plus many with small to tiny production, no distribution, no tasting room, no visitors. Many others get by on local sales.

Some visits are best not rushed, so two wineries in a subregion can be very satisfying. Thereā€™s a good grouping of tasting rooms in and near the city of Santa Cruz.

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32

OK. Youā€™ve convinced me for the Grand Tasting. Hopefully we can get a dinner or some event together that weekend while some of us are in town. Iā€™ll see Uli at Falltacular Saturday and bring it up with him.

Jealous of the old Sutter Home and any mention of Gemello.

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33

Great notes, Dan. What had been familiar become uncanny and intriguing.

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34

Amazing tasting. During the recent Santa Cruz Mountains / Napa tasting I asked Paul Draper about Gemello and specifically the legendary 1960 and he said that local winemakers had to convince Mario Gemello to stop blending vintages together. Maybe they were wrongā€¦

35

Dan, this was a really great read, love the history of these wines. Thanks for sharing it.

36

Ah, yes, it was a magical elixir! Good timesā€¦.

37

I already have the wines, and I was actually extending a Gemello event ( the 1970 did very well in the Judgement tasting) but I did not have enough wines. I will be adding wines from Martin Ray, Mount Eden, Ridge and Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards.

Love to have you come down for it; plan to do it near to home in Westchester.

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38

OK, Iā€™m definitely interested. Please let me know date and cost.

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