Our Very Own Brigadoon

Enjoy a new wine country experience: Santa Cruz Mountains!

By Dianne Boate and Robert Meyer

Have we got a surprise for you! One of the oldest wine making regions in California is in our backyard to the south, the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is a very unique wine region and here are some words from the Winegrowers Association to tell you why: “The individual micro-climates, marine influence, mountain terrain, distinctive soils and low crop levels, all contribute to the production of intensely-concentrated fruit.”

To get you started, the upcoming Passport Weekend event on April 17, 2004 allows you to visit places not normally open to the public, and to taste wonderful handcrafted wines that simply are not available anywhere else.

We went down for the January Passport Weekend and were charmed right out of our tennis shoes. For $25 a person, your Passport purchase gives you tickets to four Saturday events in January, April, July, and November to enjoy the amazing hospitality the vintners provide. It is like a progressive dinner, wandering from place to place, sampling the wines and the homemade food. Even though we were strangers, we felt right at home. (Dianne thinks that the success or failure of all events rests upon the hospitality issue. For even if the tent falls down and it starts to rain, if one knows how to make an adventure out of it, everything will be just fine.)

Michaels On Main, 2591 Main Street, Soquel, (831-479-9777) is a good place to start . Four wineries pour in the patio with tasty appetizers by Chef Michael( formerly of the Savoy in London) whose current theme is “cutting edge comfort cuisine.” This is the most southern location; you can pick up your Passport there, then work your way back through redwood-filled canyons and mountains, visiting the wineries that are open for this event.

People Who Care
The bottom ;ine, meaning making money, is what makes the news in the business sections of newspapers. But there is another bottom line in the marketplace that can truly spell success or failure: Does the person making the product CARE about what they are doing? Over our years of visiting winemakers, we have seen one thing over and over again: Folks who make wine care with great passion about what’s in the bottle with their name on it. This is ever so true in the Santa Cruz Mountains, for these winemakers are in smaller production than some of their winemaking brethren in the flat valleys we know and love so well.

A Second Look
The very first person we met on our January trip was Barry Jackson, proprietor and winemaker of EQUINOX methode champenoise sparkling wine. He is the only one in the Santa Cruz Mountains making this type of wine. He told us he took the road less traveled, and it has been hard. He is a perfectionist who will regularly patrol the vineyards and pluck out what he thinks is undesirable. “Rigorous quality control,” he commented. Once the fruit is ready, he takes a much lower percentage of juice from the crush to create the highest flavor possible. His yield is 120-130 gallons of juice per ton, as opposed to the 150-200 gallons per ton that high volume sparkling wine makers will use.“This type of winemaking is faith based,” he said.

We traveled to Santa Cruz a second time to talk to him and taste his excellent wines. He told us, “We are trying to make wines that are age worthy. Traditional dossage (brandy or something sweet to influence the taste) covers flaws. It is an adjustment factor. Winemaking is an exercise in infinite fine tuning. One of my personal goals is to educate people that champagne is the perfect food wine.” (Dianne is giving a standing ovation on this one.)

We talked about the mystery element of mountain living and winemaking. “It is people living on the edge; engaging Mother Nature is risk taking, not for people who need safety net living. We have the threat of earthquakes and did you know it is a rain forest here? 60-120 inches of rain! The pioneer spirit of hardiness and innovation are common qualities here. In Santa Cruz, most likely you can talk to the person who made the wine,” he added proudly.

His wine has won many awards. It is well worth the $30-40 price range. Equinox methode champenoise is available in the City at The London Wine Bar and Hayes & Vine. Visit their website at www.equinoxwine.com.

The Bargetto Twins
We did look twice in January at our second stop, Soquel Winery. One was pouring out the wine, the other was serving up tender slices of grilled filet on toasted bread with a great slab of cheese. We had no idea that twin grandsons of the pioneer Bargetto family (winery opened in 1933) had established a boutique winery of their own in the mountains. It has been in operation since 1987, now producing some 4500 cases a year.

When we called recently, Peter answered and instantly invited us to get in the car and come on down for a special lunch they were hosting that day for their Wine Club. The warmth of the invitation was irresistible and although we would be facing a 1 1/2 hour drive, away we went, cruising down the highway, not the river, on a Sunday afternoon.They fired up the grill again for us, brought out one of their more unique wines–a special cuvee of cabernet and old vines zinfandel that was a deep rich berry color. The taste alone was worth the trip.