2012 Santa Lucia Highlands: A Winemaker’s Vintage 

After two challenging years in 2010 and 2011, producers in the Santa Lucia Highlands were given a much more typical California growing season in 2012, with plenty of sunshine, no shock weather events to speak of, and a long, leisurely harvest. There has been quite a bit of excitement building over the 2012s. How have the wines turned out?

It’s a Question of Yields

Last year, when I was tasting through the 2011s, producers told me over and over it was a ‘winemaker’s vintage.’ I am not so sure. In 2011, Mother Nature made a lot of decisions. Spring frost was an issue in many places. Flowering took place under difficult conditions, while the rest of the growing season was long and cool. The worst of the rains and the rot that followed were reserved for the North Coast, Napa Valley in particular, but growers in the Central Coast had their hands full. Ripeness was achieved at lower sugar levels than most winemakers had ever seen. Throughout the year, growers had to be highly reactive.

Things were totally different in 2012. Mother Nature made no decisions. Instead, producers had to make all the choices, and that required a whole different skill set. Think of it as playing defense versus offense. Vines set a healthy crop and the weather was picture perfect. After highly challenging seasons in 2010 and 2011, 2012 was a piece of cake. Growers could pick whenever they wanted under pretty much ideal conditions. Sounds perfect, right?

A landscape view from the southern edge of the Santa Lucia Highlands

Well, not exactly. Yields were up massively in 2012, in some places double of what is normal. After the very challenging, low-yielding 2011, my sense is that some growers tried to compensate for that shortfall in 2012, a very dangerous and tricky proposition. The culture of outsourced farming and a reliance on purchased fruit works, but winemakers have to be in the vineyard all of the time and have the ability to call the shots. Long-distance farming can also work, but it won’t give consistently outstanding results every year, even in California.