Santa Lucia Highlands: Steely and Steadfast in 2022

BY BILLY NORRIS | AUGUST 29, 2024

Additions: January 30, 2025 - 

Bruliam Wines, Busy Signal, Common Thread, Landmark Vineyards, Morét-Brealynn, Phone Booth, Shared Notes

It’s hot—hotter than it used to be and getting even hotter. I bet you’ve noticed. For industries directly related to the whims of Mother Nature and dependent upon her cooperation—say, viticulture—things are growing evermore tenuous. Up and down the West Coast of the United States, the 2022 growing season was a doozy, marked in many cases by late-season extreme heat that threw a gigantic wrench into the end stages of ripening, causing a domino effect of challenges in vineyards and wineries. This heat spared very few (if any) regions in California, but one, in particular, had an extra layer of armor for the battle: the Santa Lucia Highlands.

Looking east over the Salinas Valley from Sierra Mar Vineyard.

The SLH—A Refresher

Stretching southeast to northwest for 18 miles, the Santa Lucia Highlands (SLH) is essentially one long, narrow strip of vineyards that ascends halfway up the eastern side of the Santa Lucia Range, situated on the western edge of the Salinas Valley. It splits into two distinct sectors: the warmer, higher-elevation, rockier South Bench and the cooler, less dynamic North Bench. The SLH is essentially hidden in plain sight, only a few miles from Highway 101, but barely discernable through the ever-present dust churned up by the tractors working the agricultural fields on the valley floor. The Salinas Valley, better known as “The Salad Bowl of the World,” is a farming mecca, boasting incomparably fertile soils that yield more than half of the nation’s lettuce, in addition to 50+ other fruit and vegetable crops.