I'm hoping someone can help me a bit here. I'm going to be in the Santa Cruz Mountains region for a couple of days fairly soon. Besides Ridge and Mount Eden, what other wineries should I try to get to? What are your favourite SCM area wineries and wines? There isn't a lot of information on this area on the usual wine sites. And on another topic, what are the best hiking trails in the area? Thanks in advance!
Make sure you check on both Ridge and Mt. Eden soon. When I visited Santa Cruz last year, Mt. Eden was not taking visitors and Ridge was only open to the public for a couple days a week. The other days you had to make reservations for the sit down tasting which are limited to 8 or 10 each and only held 2 oe 3 times a day and do come at a price.
Other wineries to consider
Bonny Doon and Santa Cruz Mtns. While I was underwhelmed by both they are in Santa Cruz and not the Mtns so easier to get to and just a short walk seperates the two. The Pizza at Bonny Doon was better than the wines poured that day.
Big Bassin gets a lot of love on the internet but we did not get there.
Bargetto flies under the radar of most but has made some good wines over the years. Their Gewurtz has in the past been my vote for best domestic Gewurtz and I am not normally a fan of that grape.
Equinox has been cited by some as having good sparkling wine and is a short distance from Boony Doon and Santa Cruz Mtns. We did not stop since this was our last day of our trip and we were a little burned out on wine by then.
Unfortunately Rhys and Stefania are not open to the public
It's a bit further north on Skyline Drive (directly above Palo Alto, actually) but I wquite enjoyed Thomas Fogarty's lineup the other week. Their Chardonnay was distinctive and the cabernets pretty nice, too.
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