Santa Cruz Mountains winery visits – McHenry, Trout Gulch, Copious, Downhill, Byington, more

WINE TALK
1

I’ve posted a portion of a report from mid-January visits to several Santa Cruz Mountains wineries and tasting rooms during their Passport Weekend. Several wineries shared locations for pouring their wines. A full report on all of the visits – with tasting notes and more photos – is on the Grape-Nutz.com website:
Santa Cruz Mountains - January 2013

McHenry Vineyard
Equinox Wines / Trout Gulch Vineyard / Copious Winery
Downhill Cellars / Muccigrosso Vineyards / Byington Winery

McHenry Vineyard
Just a mile or so north of Bonny Doon, we headed up a small side road where we soon came upon McHenry Vineyard. Passing alongside the vineyard, surrounded by soaring trees, we parked next to a small wooden building that houses the winery and we walked inside. The winery was founded by Dean McHenry – the first chancellor of UC Santa Cruz – and his wife Jane, along with their son and daughter-in-law Henry and Linda. Linda had studied viticulture at UC Davis, and Henry, who was a noted anthropology professor there, learned winemaking from his Davis colleagues. Dean passed away in 1998 but Jane celebrated her 100th birthday last year. The vineyard and winery are still family-run, and Henry’s son Ian McHenry and son-in-law Brandon Blanchard were on hand in the winery to pour three recent Pinot Noir releases and two older bottlings.

McHenry Vineyard produces only Pinot Noir. The estate vineyard was first planted in 1972, one of the oldest Pinot plantings in the area. It was originally about four acres in size and had included Chardonnay as well as Pinot at first, but it is now entirely Pinot Noir. The vineyard is sited on a gentle slope at just under 1,800-foot elevation and less than five miles from the ocean. The topsoil is shallow, with sandstone below. The first Pinot harvest was in 1976, and the first commercial release from the winery was in 1980.

Unfortunately, like a number of other vineyards in this area, McHenry Vineyard was devastated by Pierce’s Disease in the early 1990s. It was replanted in 1997-98 with four Pinot clones – Pommard, Swan, 13, and 115. The winery continued to make wine with purchased fruit in the 1990s until the first vintage of Pinot from the replanted estate vineyard was produced in 2000. The vineyard is currently 2½ acres in size, but the McHenrys are planning to plant more Swan clone vines there, as these have produced particularly good wine at their site.

We started our tasting with two Pinots from the 2010 vintage, their regular estate wine and then a special estate “Swan Clone” bottling composed mostly of fruit from the Swan clone vines (there’s also some of the 13 clone blended in). The McHenrys are very happy with their 2010 Pinots, noting that the growing conditions were exceptional at their vineyard that year. The fruit ripened well, with brix mostly in the mid-24 range, while retaining very good acidity, with 3.3pH and 0.9TA at harvest. Both of these wines were very good, with the “Swan Clone” bottling having greater depth and complexity.

We continued with the 2009 estate Pinot – this showed the smoky effects of a summer fire close to the vineyard that year. While I can’t say that I enjoyed the smoky aroma and finish of this wine, Ian and Brandon said that it has actually been fairly popular among a number of their customers who report that it goes well with barbecued food! We finished with two wines from 1999 that were made with purchased fruit. One was from Massaro Vineyard in Carneros – McHenry made a Pinot Noir from this vineyard from 1993 through 2000 – and the other was from Amaya Ridge Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains north of Soquel. I thought the 1999 Massaro bottling was a bit past its prime, but the Amaya Ridge Pinot was holding up nicely.

The tiny winery building holds the entire McHenry production. Ian and Brandon told us that in a good vintage such as 2012, they’ll produce around 500 cases, but significantly less in a tougher year like 2011. In addition to wines from recent vintages, the winery holds back a limited amount of older wines, including the two 1999 wines we tasted, and also including selected older vintages of estate Pinots.

Bryan picked up a bottle of 2010 McHenry Pinot for us to share during lunch, which we enjoyed on some patio chairs just outside the winery. McHenry is a modest operation in every sense of the word, and the family-run nature of the business was very apparent at their Passport open house. I had tried a couple of McHenry Pinot Noirs at past Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot tastings and liked them, but I thought both of their 2010 Pinots were a step up from those earlier vintages. McHenry is such a small label that it’s easy to overlook them amongst the larger and better-known Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir producers, but their 2010 Pinots show that they’re capable of making some standout wines.

Current releases and library wines
McHenry 2010 Pinot Noir, Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains. Medium-light garnet color, with very pretty floral notes along with strawberry and cherry fruit, tea leaf, and earth aromas. Medium-light bodied with lively acidity and fairly mild tannins, nice.
McHenry 2010 Pinot Noir, “Swan Clone,” Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains. Slightly darker color, featuring deeper black cherry and raspberry fruit, more earth and dried herb notes, plus a touch of baking spice and a savory, meaty component. A bit bigger and more structured in the mouth, with great acidity and a long finish, very nice.
McHenry 2009 Pinot Noir, Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains. Lighter garnet color, this had an obviously smoky nose along with red fruits and spice in the background. Medium-light weight on the palate, the charcoal-like smoke returned in a big way on the finish.
McHenry 1999 Pinot Noir, Massaro Vineyard, Carneros. Medium-light color, showing funky, earthy aromas along with a darker fruit profile than the recent Santa Cruz Mountains bottlings. Still retaining good acidity and finishing with moderate tannins, but the fruit is fading.
McHenry 1999 Pinot Noir, Amaya Ridge Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains. Medium-light garnet color, this displayed earthy but bright black cherry fruit, tea leaf, and a touch of baking spice. Lively on the palate and finish, this has matured nicely.

2

Just curious, Ken…

Until the end of the writeup (specifically Byington), I thought maybe we could assume SCM was maybe best suited to Pinot Noir. I know you tried a number of other good wines, as well, but it seems that Pinot expresses itself most uniquely there. Thoughts?

Also, I’m often shocked by the differences in a given varietal (Pinot Noir, in this case), produced under different labels, in the same facility, arguably by the same cellar staff. The Downhill and Byington - why such radical differences in vintage and outcome?

3

I must admit I’m very much in the learning stage with the Santa Cruz Mountains - I find it similar in some ways to the Sonoma Coast in that it’s a large area with many subregions which seem to be quite distinct. But from what I’ve tasted I would agree that Chardonnay and Pinot seem most expressive in the overall Santa Cruz Mountains area, though of course Cabs from Ridge, Mount Eden, and a few others are standouts as well. I thought the issue with the Byington Pinots was with their choice of barrels - a poor choice IMHO. Hard to say what they would have been like with a different oak program.

And I think the oak program is often a big factor in the differences you mention in your second point, though not the only one. I’ve worked and helped out at a few places where different labels are produced and seen fruit from the same vineyard come in at different brix due to choice of pick date by producers, different fermentation techniques (destemmed vs. whole cluster, level of extraction, etc.), and different oak programs. So I don’t find it surprising that there would be the type of variation you mention.

I’m headed to the Santa Cruz Mountains “Pinot Paradise” event this weekend - I’ve gone a couple of times in the past - so I hope to learn more about the distinctions between different parts of the overall AVA. There’s a technical session on Friday focusing on minerality, with Duncan Meyers, Bradley Brown, Nathan Kandler, Jim Schultze, and Josh Jensen, and the big “Grand Cruz” tasting on Sunday. Both of those are already sold out, but there’s also the “Pathway to Pinot Paradise” on Saturday with lots of winery special open house events: Pathway to Pinot Paradise

4

Eric,

Just to chime in with a little of my experience in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It’s an amazing place to grow Pinot, one of the best, in my opinion, on the west coast. The winemaking in the Santa Cruz Mountains is best described as mixed. There are amazing wines that come out of there, miserable wines that come out of there, and everything in between. There are producers that lather their pinots in Hungarian and American oak, there’s VA, unclean barrels, you name it. And its exacerbated by being one of the tougher regions to work with. Making SLH Pinot is like winemaking with training wheels in comparison (this is not a commentary on the finished quality of the wine, just on the production). Excellent winemakers excel in the Santa Cruz Mountains, good winemakers get tripped up. I loved working there, and have some fruit on tap for next year.

The discussion of minerality is interesting because 1) most of its vineyards are not terribly rocky (with the exception of vineyards on parts of skyline) 2) I don’t think of minerality as one of the defining characteristics of SCM wine, not like other regions. Earth and duff(redwood) are much more of how I think of the region. But I guess minerality is such a vague term.

While there are some great chardonnays coming out of the SCM, I think other regions, some planted, some yet to be planted, have much better potential with the variety. But there are few other grapes that get me as excited as good SCM pinot. That stuff can be so great and challenging in the best way.

Ian

5

Good points, Ian, and I agree that I’ve found winemaking to be all over the map in the Santa Cruz Mountains (some other places in California too, but that’s another story). What’s your theory as to why this is the case? Is it because it doesn’t have the same draw for more highly-skilled winemakers as some other regions or is it something else? I recalled that a couple of noted winemakers who had been at Byington - Alan Phillips and Nick de Luca - left there for more prestigious positions in Santa Barbara County. And what do you see as the some of the tough features of working with fruit from the Santa Cruz Mountains that can trip up winemakers?

6

Thanks, Ian. While I’ve not been through the SCM all that many times, I wholeheartedly concur with your thoughts and comments about the wines. It’s a fascinating area, and I think way overlooked by an unfortunately large amount of wine geeks.

The discussion of minerality is interesting because 1) most of its vineyards are not terribly rocky (with the exception of vineyards on parts of skyline) 2) I don’t think of minerality as one of the defining characteristics of SCM wine, not like other regions. Earth and duff(redwood) are much more of how I think of the region. But I guess minerality is such a vague term.
Ian

Exactly what I was thinking. “Minerality” is one of 2-3 favorite words of a wine geek. “We” usually know what we mean - or, are trying to describe. And yet, when pressed to further describe, “we” seem to be unable to evoke a decent source/origin for such a term. GrapeRadio recorded a recent seminar at WOPN regarding minerality and to paraphrase the outcome, the panel seemed to agree that ‘…it didn’t make sense to use a term that was difficult to quantify, and arguably more difficult to qualify.’ As Carole Meredith has taught us (and contrary to intuition), the vines [sadly] do not suck up minerality from the soil or incumbent rocks. Damn! Now I gotta find some more phrases!
[snort.gif]

7

Ian, could you elaborate on your thought about the use of oak. Do you think the use of American or the use of Hungarian is a poor choice for the region? Or is there too much new oak in general?

8

Winemaking is entirely unrelated between Downhill and Byington. Frank makes his own wine, his own way. Byington is family run. At some point, after Frank had been making his wine there for a few years, they needed a new general manager, and since he’s qualified, local and they a lot anyway, he took on the task. That position has nothing to do with their winemaking.

I believe the only estate grapes at Byington are Pinot Noir, and everything else they make is purchased fruit. If you want to compare, Beauregard makes a Byington Vyd Pinot.

This was actually the best tasting of Byington wines I’ve had since the late '90s. For quite awhile they were completely overwhelmed by woody and resiny character. (Enough people seem to like that, since the place is always packed.)

9

American oak is a poor choice for Pinot Noir, always. I assume he’s saying the same for Hungarian.

The worst sins have been with some of the old school producers who’ve never felt the need to put in much effort. Now there’s a new school who are striving for excellence, succeeding, gaining recognition, serving as role models and freely sharing advice.

10

What are your thoughts on Hungarian ?

11

Not Ian, but on a previous visit with Ian, Ken mentions Ian’s use of Hungarian oak on Rhone/Portugese/Spanish varieties, none on Pinot. A Visit to Pierce Ranch and Coastview Vineyard - June 2011 I’ve considered Hungarian to be certainly softer than American, but not as much as French.

12

Wes, thanks for clarifying the Downhill / Byington relationship. I was not entirely clear on Frank’s responsibilities at Byington so your post helped a lot with explaining everything. I agree that the contrast between the Byington Pinots and the Beauregard Pinot made from Byington fruit is dramatic. I liked the Beauregard version quite a bit when we tasted that last summer.

I’m also not a fan of American oak with Pinot. I’ve tried a few and the oak profile usually gets me thinking about Zin more than Pinot. I think some Hungarian barrels mixed in with mostly French oak for Pinot can work well under some circumstances but I generally don’t like too much Hungarian oak with Pinot.

13

All oak has to be used carefully, the more delicate the source material, the more careful you have to be with your treatment. It’s different using Hungarian on a touriga nacional than it is on a pinot, although certain Hungarian coopers can be less obtrusive than certain French coopers. There are a few SCM pinot producers who use only French oak but buy from cooperages that don’t age or select their oak particularly well. Or they get a little toast happy.

I think one of the biggest issues with the SCM is winery size and wage rates; many of the wineries are so small that they are run by owner/operators with minimal previous winery experience and often little experience in wine as a whole. The same is true for many vineyards (big shout out to Prudy Foxx for bringing several vineyards around of late). The sad case is that once you hit a certain skill level, there are more attractive offers elsewhere and a lot of the talent that has come up in the SCM has left for greener pastures. It doesn’t help that the two largest wineries in the appellation are legendarily dysfunctional. The reason I moved south from the mountains is I didn’t want to be boxed in. Opportunities are just better elsewhere. But when you can get your hands on a top notch SCM Pinot vineyard you hold on for dear life. Those don’t come around very often.

14

My experience locally is that oak purchases fall into three general groups:

Wineries that purchase new oak when an old barrel can no longer hold wine and no used barrels, tanks, jugs, water heaters or bath tubs are available. By volume that’s probably 50% of the local wine produced.(SCM and SCV)

Wineries that purchase new barrels on occasion and generally try to get the cheapest ones they can (American/Hungarian, although Hungarian ain’t cheap anymore) Maybe 30% by volume.

Wineries that actually try and match their production to the best barrel possible. - 20% by volume.

In that last 20% there’s a lot of room for disagreement, experiments, and going your own way. It’s as much art as science. For instance I use a cooper that Ian doesn’t like and he uses one I don’t like. There’s another one we both like, although I actually prefer the barrels once used rather than new. Ian and I both worked with Bradley who used more toast and more new wood then either of us, but I generally use more toast and more new wood than Ian.

Point is that most local winemakers are concerned with cost first and, well cost, that’s what they are concerned with. Too me it’s not so much what someone has picked for their oak program that is as indicative as if they’ve made the choice based on anything other than cost. After that it’s finding a style of use that you like.

15

Paul- your comments support a view I have regarding the SCM appelation, even tho’ I get raked over the coals for sharing this view. If interested, just start at post #23 of the following to review the flaming. deadhorse

I’ve had some truly dreadful wines up there within the last 24 months, and will be visiting again over Easter. A couple of places are sublime (Rhys, Windy Oaks, Mt. Eden, and Ridge if you want to go that far although I generally exclude the folks over on the eastern flank of the mtns.) but most await the arrival of more talented folks such as Ian, Paul, and Prudy Fox, the Vine Whisperer of the SCM. [cheers.gif]

16

Stu,

I think the reason you got piled on was you discounted the region, which is entirely the point I’m trying to make. The Santa Cruz Mountains should be thought of as one of the top handful of American Pinot regions. The quality of the vineyards and the fruit they grow can be phenomenal. That the finished product is shoddy has little to do with the potential of the vineyard.

A wine to check out: Birichino Lilo Vineyard Pinot Noir SCM 2011. I’ll be bringing in some of this fruit next crush. We’ve finally got the farming worked out and it has tremendous potential.

Ian

17

Below is a list of the producers pouring at this Sunday’s Pinot Paradise tasting - aside from the more obvious choices, any of the lesser-known names on the list I should be sure to visit? With some luck, I may get to everyone’s table but with only three hours to taste, it’s certainly possible that I’ll miss a few.

Alfaro Family Vineyards
Bargetto Winery
Beauregard Vineyards
Big Basin Vineyards
Black Ridge Vineyards
Burrell School Vineyards and Winery
Cinnabar Vineyards & Winery
Clos LaChance Winery
Clos Tita Winery
Cooper-Garrod Estate Vineyards
Dancing Creek Winery
Hallcrest Vineyards
Heart O’The Mountain
House Family Winery
Hunter Hill Vineyards & Winery
Kings Mountain Winery
MJA Vineyards & Winery
Mount Eden Vineyards
The Mountain Winery
Muccigrosso Vineyards
Muns Vineyard
Nicholson Vineyards
Pelican Ranch Winery
Pleasant Valley Vineyards
Regale Winery
Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard
Sante Arcangeli Family Wines
Savannah Chanelle Vineyards & Winery
Silver Mountain Winery
Silvertip Vineyards
Sonnet
Storrs Winery
Thomas Fogarty Winery
Villa Del Monte Winery
Woodside Vineyards

18

SilverTip
Storrs (2010+ are gonna be awesome, and the 2011 SCZ Chard is screamin’ good)

Stop by our table (Big Basin) and I’ll give you the run down of what I’ve been digging.

See you Sunday!

-Matt

19

Thanks for the tips, Matt. Don’t think I’ve tasted anything from SilverTip before. See you for sure on Sunday!

20

Wow. I’m overwhelmed with the info. I’m heading up to the SCM the week of April 1 with a couple of fellow winos, and I now don’t know quite where to start (actually, we are starting at Ridge…but after that. …? Hoping for a visit with Ian.)