Santa Cruz Mountains
Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Country
There are several legendary Santa Cruz Mountains wineries including Ridge Vineyards and Thomas Fogarty Winery. Ridge’s Paul Draper has done wonders for the Zinfandel grape’s reputation over his long and distinguished career. Overall, there are about 50 Santa Cruz wineries and 1,500 acres of vineyards.
Wines from the Santa Cruz Wine Country are produced with grapes grown in many different climates. The nuanced and varying weather patterns of the Santa Cruz Mountains are most affected by elevation and the direction that hillside vineyards face. Slopes facing east are typically more sheltered and warmer than slopes facing west towards the Pacific Ocean.
Santa Cruz Mountains Wineries have diverse terrain, even by California’s standards. Because several faults run through the Santa Cruz Mountains, two adjacent vineyards can have very different soil profiles. But the one constant is that soils are exceptionally thin and unfertile. Local Santa Cruz Wineries and vineyards share the landscape with conifer forests.
The Santa Cruz Mountains has a history of wine production that predates many of the states regions. A number of French immigrants made wine production a lucrative business between the 1880s and the enactment of Prohibition in 1919.
> Popular Santa Cruz Mountains Wineries
- Ridge Vineyards
- Thomas Fogarty Winery
- Storrs Winery
- Ahlgren Vineyard
- Soquel Vineyards
- Clos LaChance
- David Bruce Winery
- Fernwood Cellars
- Testarossa
- Pinder Winery
Popular Wine Tours
Santa Cruz Mountain Wine Tour
Livermore’s Luxurious Wine Tour
Comments & Reviews
January 19, 2007 | Farley
Hey, guys. You should look into adding Testarossa. It's in Los Gatos and makes some damn good Pinot Noirs.
January 25, 2007 | Ryan Fujiu
Thanks Farley, we'll get them up asap.
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