A $40 Passport gives wine lovers access to 50 wineries this Saturday. Photo by Chip Scheuer.
The Santa Cruz Mountains is one of California’s oldest wine making regions, and it’s making some of the country’s most exciting wines—if you know where to find them. That’s why there’s Passport Day, which literally provides a map to some of the appellation’s greatest treasures.
This Saturday, from 11am to 5pm, some 50 local wineries—including many that are normally closed to the public—will open their doors to anyone holding a wine Passport (available for $40 at any participating winery; check the list at www.scmwa.com). It’s a chance to see some of the breathtaking places where the region’s award-winning vintages are grown and chat with the winemakers behind the flavor profiles.
“The Santa Cruz Mountains appellation is the premier American mountain appellation,” says Steve Principe, owner of VinoCruz, the Cooper Street shop that carries only local wines. “It was the first winegrowing region to be defined by a mountain range. Some say if there weren't Prohibition it'd be the premier area over Napa or Sonoma.”
Though typically overshadowed by higher–profile Napa and Sonoma, Santa Cruz Mountains wines reward those willing to veer away from the ordinary.
“It just feels like the Santa Cruz wines—there’s always a heartfelt story about them,” says Debra Szecsei, co-owner of Vino Locale, a wine shop Palo Alto that also specializes in Santa Cruz Mountains wines. “The people do it for the passion and the love of winemaking, not necessarily for the money. And that’s part of what makes it really special.”
If wine–drinking locavores think Saturday is a dream come true, on Sunday they’ll swear they’ve died and gone to heaven. The annual Wine and Crab Taste-Off pairs Dungeness crab recipes with select local vintages at five area restaurants: Café Cruz, Sanderlings, Ma Maison, Michael’s on Main and Paradise Beach Grille. Dishes from past years have included numbers like crab and scallop tartare with foie gras (reportedly a show-stopper at Ma Maison in 2009) and crab risotto fritters, each matched to a lovely local wine like Heart o’ the Mountain Estate Pinot Noir or a Testarossa Chardonnay. One $49 ticket is good for crab tastings at two restaurants and wine tastings at five; add $16 per restaurant to try more dishes. Event runs 2pm–5pm.
For more information visit www.scmwa.org.
Additional reporting by Santa Cruz Weekly staff.
