Rediscovering an Old Friend

Santa Cruz, CA

This was a case of rediscovering an old friend for me. Having lived “over the hill” in San Jose for many years, Santa Cruz was a refreshing outlet for thousands of us Vals from the Santa Clara Valley who flooded the hippy coastal town on the weekends and jammed up the streets, as well as the surfing lanes, yet treasured Santa Cruz and Northern California coastline just as much as the locals.

Years later, I also learned to love Santa Cruz for its wine and developed a new found interest of exploring wine… over the hill.

Recently, I had an opportunity to reconnect with my old beach-town friend. A weekend trip there allowed me to visit places I knew, and discover new places.

New Friend – Village Yoga

It starts with yoga… and it means a lot to me to be able to maintain my yoga practice while continuing my yoga journey, which includes practicing at yoga studios other than my home-town studio. When I travel, I get the opportunity to experience new studios, learn from new teachers, and meet new yogis. My visit to Village Yoga, which included a 90-minute hot yoga session, is at the top of my highlights for this trip. The session was just what I needed to prep me for some serious wine tasting afterward. It was hot, thorough, and satisfying. I love being guided to my full potential and beyond, and this session did just that, in the clean, well-maintained, infrared-heated studio.

This opportunity helped with my rediscovery of Santa Cruz and my introduction to new and wonderful experiences there.

Old Friend – Upper Crust

Speaking of wonderful experiences, and to further prepare for tasting, I highly recommend a stop at the Upper Crust, serving Old-World Traditional Pizza and Pasta. Upper Crust has been a Santa Cruz tradition since 1979, when I first got to know Santa Cruz so many years ago. Comfy, homey, and very much a local treat. Grabbing a slice here is a great way to carb-up before getting into the vino, just up the road in Davenport or right around the corner on the Westside.

New Best Friends – Surf City Vintners

Okay, these are not just new friends, they’re my new, best, friends, and I will visit them whenever I’m in Santa Cruz, just like good friends should. This Surf City Vintners group represents a hot, new (to me) district on the Westside of Santa Cruz, near Swift and Ingalls. I think it’s been around for about 10 years, but I had never been there before. I was very curious to check this area out and thrilled with what I found there. As you can tell from the pictures, the area is full of converted warehouses and factories that now house boutiques, restaurants, and tasting rooms, to create an awesome wine-themed amusement park for wine lovers. Often wine is produced and barreled on site, so the bar where they do the wine tasting is in the front, finished part of the building, and sometimes you’re right in the middle of the barrel room.

There’s an exciting vibe happening here that makes wine lovers salivate. I tipped a few tastes during my short, but sweet, visit to this part of town, and really enjoyed each aspect of the experience. The people I met made me feel welcome and appreciated, with their coastal kindness, and the wine made my winebuds sing with joy. The tasting experience here is relaxed, easy to navigate, and very diverse in terms of the wines, and the people and stories behind them.

I tasted at Sones Cellars, Stockwell Cellars, and MJA Vineyards, all worth visiting and accommodating, but… while I was there, MJA had the party going On! The energy was upbeat and fun. There were people hanging out on the patio taking in the fresh sea air, sunshine, and excellent vino. On an early Sunday afternoon visitors were very comfortably situated and very well taken care of by the staff. There were umbrella tables, music, and flowing vino from glasses that never went dry. My tasting experience at MJA was heightened by the people I met there, who were friendly, fun, and… as you might suspect, quite fond of wine.

One person I met at MJA is Sherry Montoya, a local artist who paints with wine. I mean, not just in a glass while she paints with watercolors, but on her brush, creating beautiful wine paintings.

Here are a couple of wine notes about these fun wineries…

Sones Cellars – They have a thing for hedgehogs and have even pioneered a reusable wine bottle in California (which works much the way a Grolsch beer-bottle top does) for their Hedgehog Red and White, refillable bottle program. Sones Cellar’s signature wine is Cancion del mar, a white blend of Pinot Gris, Torrontes, Viogner, and Sauvignon Blanc. I had a nice, leisurely taste here that was made even more interesting by viewing the 3-D artwork in the tasting space.

Stockwell Cellars – Described as a modern urban winery, it is very industrial too, with furniture fabricated out of wood and steel by a welder turned winemaker, who has made the wine tasting space there warm and inviting in a wine-production sort of way. Stockwell Cellar wines are made from grapes harvested at a lower brix, which means a lower alcohol wine. Key to their process is the use of wild, native yeast vs commercial yeast preferred by most winemakers, which they claim helps create complex and distinctive wine that showcase a varietal’s grape. My wine pourer while I was there was a very knowledgeable and personable local resident who helped guide me through the flight.

MJA Vineyards – MJA is a blend in itself, of Croatian ancestry, Hawaiian Aloha Spirit, Napa vineyards, and the West Coast, Surf City vibe of Santa Cruz. There were more people here than at the other tasting rooms and the people here were definitely in fun mode, laughing, talking, and enjoying wine. Speaking of which the grapes for their Cab come from very good stock in Howell Mountain, St. Helena, and Napa vineyards. They have a Barbera sourced from El Dorado County, a Chardonnay, Merlot, and Pinot Noir from grapes grown near Santa Cruz and along the Central Coast. Two words about tasting here… party… time! This vibe is generated and spread via the Ohana charm here, where everyone feels like family and the winery owner makes sure that everyone visiting knows that, as he graciously greets and serves his guests. 

Old Friend – Davenport / New Friend – Bonny Doon Vineyard Tasting Room

Davenport has a lot of roadside, coastal California charm, and fog. For some time the village was used as a port to get lumber from the Santa Cruz mountains transported to Santa Cruz via ship. Although most of its historic industry has been shuttered, present-day Davenport now acts as an artist colony and way station, feeding travelers and tourists who buzz up and down Highway 1 with its few restaurants and solo store.

But it also has the Bonny Doon Vineyard Tasting Room, which opened in Davenport, in 2013. The site is Foresters Gallery, site of historic Foresters Hall, a gathering place for early Davenport residents. The wine making process at Bonny Doon Vineyard is what they refer to as a group process that is based on a partnership between Mother Nature (the grapevines, the terroir, and the elements) and man… that man being Randall Grahm, an admitted wine fanatic. What this partnership produces are Rhone red and white blends, such as Le Cigare Volant and La Cigare Blanc, or… Red Wine of the Earth and White Wine of the Earth, many of which receiving 90+ ratings from either Wine Spectator or Wine Enthusiast. In addition to outstanding wines, the vibe here is a very relaxed, coastal rustic feel that makes you not want to leave. On weekends, groups descend and the tasting room can get packed and loud… which only heightens the tasting experience!

That was it for this trip, but I hope to return before too long. There are so many other wineries, restaurants, art galleries, points of interest, and reasons to love visiting Santa Cruz and creating a wonderful wine weekend.

Have Fun!

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