Along with Loma Prieta on the same short stretch of Summit Rd. are Burrell School, adorable schoolhouse with a beautiful view, very erratic but sometimes terrific wines; the Bel Air like Regale; Wright Station; Villa del Monte; Summit Store grocery store with an impressive selection of Santa Cruz Mts wines. I can only comment on Villa del Monte where the winemaker makes incredibly true and honest wines. I can’t recommend Big Basin wines enough, huge but balanced, greatly underappreciated pinots because the syrahs are so good, but not the newly opened (showing oaky) lower end bottles that have been my experience in the tasting room. When I go there I buy and open a higher end bottle. A visit to Ridge for me is more educational than hedonistic because the wines are so young, and beware older vintages available for ready sale, there is a reason why that vintage is available. 2011 for example was a tricky year there for my palate.
Testarossa off of downtown Los Gatos but secluded in an old woodsy Novitiate has a great outdoor patio and a wide lineup of pinots and chards, you can spend a leisurely afternoon there. Beloved by many but to me the wines always lack that long complex finish that marks greatness.
Mount Eden, Ridge, and Rhys have all been ranked the very best in the country by some. Because of the road I will probably never visit Mt. Eden even though their Estate chard with ten years on it is mindblowing while very oaky on release.
Don’t listen to any negative opinions about Fogarty more than three years in the past. The current winemaking team is demented in a good way. Risk takers.
George,
Cant disagree with a word you said. Headed to Burrell School this afternoon for tasting and to pick up some club wines… Some of Dave’s wines are brilliant while others are an mess. Villa del Monte remains an undiscovered secret.
Try http://www.warginwines.com/ in Soquel/Watsonville sometime… (Michael Wargin proprietor and winemaker is very talented and up and coming). He used to be the winemaker and Burrell and MJA before starting Wargin. Wargins focus is on Italian varietals… I really enjoy their wines…
Sean
Thanks to Wineberserkers I shall soon receive and drink my first Windy Oaks at a terrific price. Too many raves not to check it out and Rhys now will have a vineyard source near them. Sean I will try Wargin, thanks.
The mainstream popular hike to combine with coffee and shopping is St. Georges Hill from charming Los Gatos. Start at the downtown Main Street Bridge, flat hike on a wide path then hike up Lexington Dam to Lexington Reservoir which should be gorgeous by then. To continue up, walk on the dam road to the left 100 yards and go up the dirt trail to overlook all of Silicon Valley. But you can do the latter from Ridge. Maybe just hike to the reservoir, a very easy hour round trip along a creek to a beautiful (this rainy year) lake returning you to gourmet coffees and useless vases.
thank you to everyone in this thread for all the info. just came back from a brief trip to the Santa Cruz mountains, and the info was really helpful. You guys weren’t kidding about the mountains – the drive up to Ridge especially was pretty amazing. My better half was freaking out looking at the steep cliffs, and there were a lot of hairpin turns and narrow one-way stretches. The trek was worth it, though; getting to the tasting room itself felt like an achievement, and it gave me renewed appreciation for all of the people who make Ridge and other wineries like it the way it is – from the original Italian immigrant farmers who settled the areas and started growing the first grapes to the original Ridge team that envisioned the winery to the staff and vineyard workers there now.
Also visited Thomas Fogarty, it was interesting how the setting and buildings reminded us so much of Pride in Napa/Sonoma. I heard about how they were splitting off their Lexington label of Bordeaux varietals to a tasting room in Saratoga, taking over the M4 (Martella/Michaud) tasting room next to Big Basin. Visiting M4 was bittersweet, it was almost their last day there before Lexington would take over, and visiting it felt like seeing the end of an era, as they are now going only to mailing list/online sales, separately.
Is it possible to taste wines at Mount Eden?
I saw this on their website:
Located up a remote two mile private road, Mount Eden DOES NOT have a tasting room.
We do, however, offer an intimate tour of the original upper wine cellar and history of the winery with an appointment—no tasting is available with this tour.
No. No tasting but you can buy I think. Dogs are OK as well.
+1 re: Testarossa. Nice visit, although I haven’t seen their higher end SVDs the last couple of times I visited. Love anything Gary related (Rosella’s, etc.) and their chards are ok for the price point. Selling point for the visit here is that it is right off of 17 in Los Gatos… which means you’re 5 minutes away from a ton of restaurants (mid tier all the way to Manresa) and you don’t have to deal with Summit/Bear Creek roads 
I used to drive by David Bruce twice a day and wonder who, in their right mind, would ever put a tasting room on Bear Creek.