Santa Cruz Mountains
Vintage Chart and Information.
Cabernet Sauvignon/Cab Franc and Blends:
1994- 92 points - Very late harvest (late October), scattered rains, but
most picked around them and made good wines. Intense tannic wines,
needing many years in bottle to come together. Complex with typical
earth-olive-underbrush mid palate. (Drink or Hold)
1995- 91 points - Another late harvest. Very big, ripe wines. Concentrated with massive but ripe tannins. More black fruit and a tad less of the mid palate complexity (Hold)
1996- 96 points - Small crop, perfect season. Backwards, intense,
age worthy wines. The best will need 10-15 years and should hold for 20
more. Great complexity and typicity. (Hold)
1997- 93 points - Huge crop, one of the biggest many could remember.
Perfect growing season. Rich flavorful wines, if not as backwards
and tannic as other vintages. (Drink or Hold)
1998- 80 points - El Nino disaster, worse than Napa - Long wet cold spring, many wines taste green and harsh. I can't figure the Monte Bello out, it may turn out good (like the 84 Jimsomare Cab that was nasty young), or may fall apart (75-88 points), I can't tell. Cooper Garrod made the only 85+ point wines (C.S. and RV Claret) (Drink)
1999- 88 points – Split vintage. The Eastern
Side (91) wineries recovered from the cold wet spring with a small but intense
crop, others taste lean, thin and herbal (83). Stick to Monte Eden (Mount
Eden Vineyards, Cooper Garrod, Kathryn Kennedy) and Monte Bello for the best
wines, some are lean. (Drink or Hold)
2000- 89-91 points (not all released) - Warm summer, excellent growing
conditions. Some had small crops from some June cold at higher
elevations. The late season problems in Napa missed the area.
Concentrated, rich wines, some showing herbal streaks which should evolve
in time to black olive and earth much like 1989. (Hold)
2001- 92-95 points (not all released) - Unusually hot mid summer, early harvest
for many, and ripeness outside of Mount Eden that many don't usually see.
Similar to 97, large good crop, if not overly complex. Should offer good
wines from all areas.
2002- 93-96 points (barrel samples and growing notes only) - Balanced growing
season, typical harvest. Most growers were happy all year long.
Rich, dark, intense wines from barrel. Very similar to 96, will
take years to develop.
2003- (86-90) (barrel samples and growing notes only)- a late season, with a
very wet spring, and unusual growth patterns.
Small crop, estate wines should do best and those who practiced active
viticulture. Conditions remained excellent into fall, and late rainstorms
that hit Napa and the Central Coast did not affect the area. Harvest came
in before the cold in November. Some growers
reported rot.
Chardonnay -
1995- 95 points - Intense age worthy wines, Ripe, rich and typical, best
of the decade. (Drink or Hold)
1996- 92 points - Concentrated wines, with mineral intensity. (Drink)
1997- 91 points - Good typicity, complex, many spicy. (Drink )
1998- 85 points - better than the reds, drinkable with a few stars (Drink)
1999- 88 points - Most seem to need aging, Mount Eden Vineyards and Ridge are
best (Hold)
2000- 93 points - Excellent age worthy and pure wines, like fine Los Clos
Chablis (Hold)
2001- 91-93 points (not all released) - Looks like there will be nice, ripe,
and flavorful wines, ready sooner than 2000’s (Drink or Hold).
2002- 90-95 (grower notes and barrel samples) Early signs are of a outstanding
vintage, fruity with excellent mineral streak.
2003- (grower notes) – some reports of rot.
Selection looks like it will be the key.
Pinot Noir -
I’ve just started a Pinot Noir chart. I
had not widely tasted Pinot until recently, at least not enough to make a
vintage call on. Note that Chard and Pinot have similar seasonal trends.
2000 – 88 points – Nice wines showing good fruit and complexity. (Drink or Hold)
2001 – 90-92 points (not all released) – Warm vintage, ripe well structured wines with warm fruit. (Hold)
2002 – 90-93 points (grower notes). Warm well balanced season, few issues in the vineyards
2003 – (grower notes) More rot problems. Weird spring seems to have effect Pinot the most with excess vigor, capped with sunburn from hot streak in July.
NOTE – clones in general in the Santa Cruz Mountains are not
good. Many are replacing with newer
better suited plant material.
Syrah, Zinfandel, Viognier, ect -
There are small amounts of other grapes in the ground, some unique old vine
Zinfandel that is usually only available at the winery or via mail order (Ridge
Jimsomare). Small patches of Syrah have
had mixed success, but seem promising in the Mount Eden Area. Nebbiolo, which in theory should thrive on
the high fog surrounded peaks, has been very poor in bottle. Cooper Garrod’s Viognier has shown good
promise, with a very unique mineral edge.
Riesling used to do well, but is all but gone from the area.
Areas of the Santa Cruz Mountains - (From North to South)
The Peninsula - From Monte Bello to Highway 92 - the coolest area, good Chards
from very small vineyards. Fogerty is the largest in the area, lots of
small wineries with fair distribution. Best for Chardonnay. Home of the original Rixford vineyard, the
first wine to win a gold medal in a major European event (1900 Paris Expo). Most vineyards are ¼ - 2 acres in size, are primarily
landscaping and are sharecropped.
The Eastern/San Jose Side - Monte Bello, Mount Eden, the old Martin Ray
vineyard, Jimsomare, and the recently replanted Mountain Winery. The
classic area of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Warmest area, best for Cabs. Good
distribution but tiny production. Syrah
and Viognier show promise.
The Western/ Santa Cruz Side - More wineries than vineyards, most truck in
their grapes ala Bonny Doon. David Bruce is the largest in this area.
Good distribution. Pinot and Chard area, some Cab, but beware of
cool Cab vintages.
The Southern Area - Almost no distribution outside of winery sales, Clos
La Chance just moved here and is the first new investment in 30 years.
Old, mostly Italian, family wineries. Also called the Hecker Pass
Area. High potential but many wineries
are outdated and show little effort to improve.
Notes and disclaimers:
I'm not a critic or expert and don't position myself as such. This is
friendly information I get asked for from time to time. I have a small suburban vineyard in San Jose
with growing conditions similar to the Southern Area, and manage a 2 acre
vineyard in the Northern Area producing Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet
Franc, Merlot, Viognier and Syrah.
I limited the Chart to vintage where I tasted a large number of wines. I
can comment on individual wines from earlier vintages but not enough to make a
vintage call. I taste as many SCM wines as I can, both at the wineries
and from bottle. I also spend a fair amount of time talking with local
growers and winemakers.
I'm open to comments and critique and especially input from those who may know
more than myself.
email comments to me at paul@hockeyguy.com Make sure to put wine or some
such thing in the title so I don't delete it as junk.