By Antonio Galloni

Santa Cruz Mountains: California’s Best Kept Secret

What is the most overlooked terroir in California? It is a question I am asked often. The answer is always the same: The Santa Cruz Mountains. These rugged hillsides just south of San Francisco are home to some of the world’s greatest vineyards and wines. Fabulous, age-worthy Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs and Cabernet Sauvignon-based reds all flourish on these dramatic mountain sites.

To be sure, farming and winemaking in the Santa Cruz Mountains can only be described as a labor of love. Yields are typically tiny by world standards, the weather is capricious and there is no easy way to reach the consumer directly, as wineries can so easily do in many other parts of the state.

All of that actually works in the consumer’s favor, as most of the wines – even at the highest level – remain very fairly priced next to global benchmarks. And make no mistake about it, the top Santa Cruz wines are among the world’s elite.

To say that 2011 was difficult in the Santa Cruz Mountains is a massive understatement. Yields are never generous here, but in 2011 they were depressingly low. To add insult to injury, making top-flight wine in 2011 required extraordinary diligence and sacrifice, which, to put it simply, meant far higher labor costs, especially in the vineyards. So the wines were much more expensive to make than normal, but there is a lot less to sell. Not exactly the type of scenario that makes bean counters happy.