Santa Cruz and Gilroy Winery Visits, Part 3 – Deauratus Wines
I’ve posted a portion of a report on recent wine visits with friends Wes and Larry to Madson Wines and Margins Wine in Santa Cruz and to Deauratus Wines in Gilroy. This portion covers the visit to Deauratus Wines. The full version of the report is on the Grape-Nutz.com website:
Santa Cruz and Gilroy Winery Visits
Sunday April 12, 2026
Deauratus Wines
After lunch, we headed over the hills about an hour’s drive east of Santa Cruz for our final wine visit of the day, with co-proprietors and co-winemakers Eric Baugher and Shun Ishikubo of Deauratus Wines. Wes had suggested visiting with them as he’d already been in touch with Eric about tasting their wines. Eric and Shun make their wines at a custom crush facility in Gilroy, and after a little initial difficulty in finding their place, we parked outside and Eric came out to greet us and welcome us in.
Many people are familiar with Eric from his long tenure – over 25 years – at Ridge Vineyards where he made the famed Monte Bello bottlings as well as others. He grew up in Santa Cruz and went to college at UC Santa Cruz, studying biochemistry and molecular biology there before starting at Ridge in 1994. Shun is from Kagoshima in southern Japan, and he began his career working for a shochu distillery there. He eventually moved to California, and after earning a degree in viticulture & enology at UC Davis he worked for a sake producer in Berkeley and then at a Lodi custom crush facility before joining the Ridge Montebello team in 2008. Eric and Shun spent over ten years working together at Ridge before both moved on after the 2020 vintage. They worked together again in Napa Valley for a couple of years after that, but they ultimately realized that Napa wasn’t for them. After that, they decided it was time for them to establish their own wine label, and they founded Deauratus in 2023.
What does the Deauratus name mean? It comes from the Latin word for “golden” – it was indeed a golden opportunity for the two longtime friends and winemaking colleagues to launch their own wine label, and they’re confident that the quality of their wines is golden as well. With 20 years of working in California wineries for Shun and over 30 years for Eric, they’re able to draw on their long experience to select from vineyard sites they feel are exceptional, and all of the Deauratus wines are labeled as single-vineyard bottlings to reflect this. The first vintage of Deauratus came in 2023, and Eric and Shun have worked to source from vineyards they believe will provide them with not only top-notch fruit, but also fruit that will help them craft wines that match their vision. In addition to high-quality fruit, they’re also committed to the same quality in their packaging. They use the best-quality natural corks they can find for their wines – their corks are individually tested to virtually eliminate the risk of cork taint. They also mentioned that their wine labels are specially made so that they will not peel off when bottles are placed in ice buckets, as many other labels do.
Deauratus is working with several noted vineyards on the Central Coast as well as in Napa. They source Grenache Blanc, Chardonnay, Grenache and Syrah from the sandy limestone- and granite-based soil of Michaud Vineyard in the Chalone AVA, and they bring in Zinfandel from 100+ year old Dusi Ranch in Paso Robles. They’ve also been sourcing Bordeaux grape varieties from a site on Mount Veeder, in the mountains west of Napa Valley. During our visit, Eric and Shun spoke of exploring different California terroirs and of trying out different ideas in their wines.
Eric and Shun set up Deauratus with an Alternating Proprietorship (AP) license at the custom crush facility in Gilroy, which ensures that they are the only ones who touch their fruit and their wine from harvest through bottling. This enables them to maintain tight control over every aspect of their winemaking process as well as making sure that cleanliness and sanitation are up to their high standards. Winemaking at Deauratus largely follows the lower-intervention model of Ridge, including native fermentations. Most fermentation for Deauratus wines takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. With their background at Ridge, it’s no surprise that Eric and Shun favor American oak for aging their wines, though they do also use some French oak – they use both new and older barrels. Red wines are typically racked every 3-6 months during barrel aging. The custom crush facility has their own bottling line, which makes it more convenient for Eric and Shun to bottle their wines when they want to.
The Deauratus wines are made in relatively small lots, and overall annual production – currently about 1,100 cases – enables Eric and Shun to do everything themselves. They told us that they’d like to grow their production but ideally they would like to keep it small enough that they can continue to do all of the cellar work on their own. In addition to selling their wines in the US, they also currently export some to the UK and Japan.
Eric and Shun led Wes, Larry, and me back into the large winery space and started off our tasting with a few of their 2025 vintage wines from barrel. The Deauratus barrels are in one corner of the space, separate from other barrels at the facility. We began with the 2025 Michaud Vineyard Chalone AVA Chardonnay, which had just finished malolactic fermentation – this had stone fruit and spice notes with great acidity. We followed that with the 2025 Dusi Ranch Paso Robles Zinfandel. While there are some other red varieties interplanted in the old vineyard (Carignane, Petite Sirah, probably others) it’s predominantly Zin. Showing brambly Zin fruit, spice, and undertones of oak, this also had fine acidity, with a tasty finish. Next was the 2025 Michaud Vineyard Chalone AVA Syrah/Grenache, a co-fermented blend of 50% of each grape variety. With savory and slightly meaty dark berry fruit, it had plenty of structure and youthful tannins.
We then tasted two 2025 barrel samples from the vineyard on Mount Veeder that Deauratus has been sourcing from since 2024. Eric had been working with fruit from this site while he was making wine in Napa Valley in 2021 and 2022, and was happy that he and Shun had been offered it for their own label. The 2025 Mount Veeder Merlot is 100% varietal. This wine had intense cherry and spice aromas with medium-full body and youthful tannins. The 2025 Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon includes about 75% Cabernet Sauvignon plus Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. It featured more spice notes along with savory herbs and a darker fruit profile than the Merlot, with a bigger mouthfeel and grippy tannins – of course it’s still very young but this barrel sample in particular showed terrific potential.
We continued with a couple of 2024 barrel samples from the Mount Veeder site, beginning with the 2024 Mount Veeder Merlot, which will be bottled soon. It displayed red fruit plus notes of anise, herbs, and cedary oak undertones, with a firm tannic finish. We finished our barrel tasting with the 2024 Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon, which has a very similar blend to the 2025 vintage though with a touch more Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and less Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. This had somewhat more herbal aromas upfront along plus darker berry fruit framed by sweet oak notes, with full body and plenty of structure.
After tasting the barrel samples with Eric and Shun, we sat down with them at a large rustic wooden table in the facility’s kitchen to taste their bottled wines. We began with a new release, the 2025 Zabala Vineyard Arroyo Seco Sauvignon Blanc, from a site with lots of the river rocks characteristic of the region. This is the first Sauvignon Blanc release from Deauratus, and was made and packaged a bit differently from their other wines. Fermented mostly in stainless steel, bottled early and with a screwcap closure, it’s meant for early drinking. Eric and Shun do bâtonnage on their white wines to help bring out both aromatics and mouthfeel, even doing bâtonnage in tank for the Sauvignon Blanc. The wine displayed fresh herbal – but not grassy – citrus and stone fruit aromas, medium body, and combining more texture than you’d expect from this variety with a lively finish. We followed that with the 2023 Michaud Vineyard Chalone AVA Grenache Blanc. With apple and stone fruit on the nose and hints of flowers and spice, this also had medium weight on the palate with fine acidity and a long finish.
Eric and Shun next poured us the 2023 Gali Vineyard Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay, from a vineyard site on the coastal side of the mountains, with sandy soil. The two had made wine for Gali Vineyards in Watsonville after they’d moved back to the area after their time in Napa Valley. This showed stone fruit and tropical fruit aromas with sweet oak undertones, and a moderately rich texture and creamy finish. We then tasted the 2024 Michaud Vineyard Chalone AVA Grenache Blanc, which provided us with the opportunity to compare it to the 2023 vintage we’d tried. Being a year younger, it was not surprising that this one featured fresher fruit aromas, with upfront tropical fruit plus herbal notes, and a vibrant mouthfeel and finish. While Wes preferred the 2023 vintage of this wine, Larry and I favored the 2024. Our last white wine was the 2024 Michaud Vineyard Chalone AVA Chardonnay – everything about it was stony, from the stone fruit aromas to the stony mineral character it displayed along with spice and oak notes in support, with great texture and a long, lively finish.
Moving on to red wines, Eric and Shun opened their 2023 Tzabaco Rancho Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. This vineyard is on land that’s been farmed by generations of the same family since the 1850s. Bright and earthy, with red fruit, lots of spice, a touch of black pepper, nicely-integrated oak notes, and showing fine structure. The 2023 Jillian Rose Vineyard Adelaida District Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon came from a site that’s been focused on growing Cabernet – this had beautiful aromatics, with herbal currant and darker berry fruit, savory and spicy components, and cedary oak in support, with medium-full body and firm tannins. We tasted one more Deauratus red, the 2024 Michaud Vineyard Chalone AVA Syrah/Grenache. As with the 2025 barrel sample we’d tasted, this is 50% each Syrah and Grenache that were co-fermented. Featuring ripe red and black fruit aromas along with savory and earthy elements and sweet oak notes in the background, this had plenty of structure and a tasty finish.
Eric and Shun had generously poured us the entire lineup of 2023 and 2024 Deauratus wines that they’ve released to date, and they had a surprise in store for us at the conclusion of our tasting – a mystery wine! They poured us this one, which was in a bottle concealed in a brown bag, and asked us to guess what it was. Although none of us quite nailed it, we did correctly guess it was an older Ridge wine, and when Eric revealed the bottle, it turned out to be the 2012 Ridge Lytton Estate Dry Creek Valley Syrah/Grenache. He noted that this was the last vintage that Ridge produced this bottling. Savory red and black fruit plus earth and spice notes, with great texture and nicely resolving tannins – showing well right now but certainly can stand up to additional cellaring.
I checked with Eric about any new projects that he and Shun are working on for Deauratus, and he mentioned that they continue to search for mountain vineyard sites (such as at Michaud and Mount Veeder), and especially for those with limestone soil, which is relatively rare in California. He also said that they’d love to make a Super-Tuscan style blend – typically Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon – if they can find the right vineyard to work with for that.
Wes, Larry, and I had a great time talking with Eric and Shun and it was so generous of them to pour so many of their wines for us to taste, both barrel samples and bottled wines. There’s little doubt that the Deauratus wines will attract fans of Eric’s and Shun’s past work at Ridge, and while there are certainly similarities between those Ridge wines and the new Deauratus ones, they’re definitely not the same. The winemaking style at Deauratus will feel fairly familiar to Ridge fans, but the vineyard sites (with the exception of Dusi Ranch) are different and there’s more than enough distinction to make the Deauratus wines unlike Ridge or any other I can think of. Only three vintages into their new project, Eric and Shun have already pointed the way for their wines’ direction. Overall I found the Deauratus wines to be an intriguing and appealing combination of boldness and subtlety. My favorites among the barrel samples we tasted were the 2025 Dusi Ranch Zinfandel, 2025 Michaud Vineyard Syrah/Grenache, and both the 2025 and 2024 vintages of Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon. For the bottled wines, I particularly liked the 2025 Zabala Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, 2024 Michaud Vineyard Grenache Blanc, 2024 Michaud Vineyard Chardonnay, and 2023 Jillian Rose Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. Whether you’re a longtime Ridge fan or coming to these wines from a different perspective, the Deauratus wines are well worth checking out.