Wine, in its highest form, speaks indelibly of place…
Landscape
The Monterey Bay fills the largest incursion into the coastal ranges which run north from Santa Barbara parallel to the California Coastline. The bay is bisected by the deepest marine canyon on the West Coast, a remnant of the outflow of prehistoric Lake Corcoran. Nutrient rich cold water upwellings from the depths of the canyon support the abundant sea life in the bay, a national marine sanctuary.
Three Rivers feed the bay, the San Lorenzo from the Santa Cruz Mountains in the North, The Pajaro from the east and the Salinas River from the South. Each river and its tributaries have formed valleys open to the sea. During the summer and fall warm inland air rises and colder air and fog rush in to fill the void. The mix of temperate climate, fog, onshore flows and California sunshine defines winegrowing on the Central Coast.
Farther east, the San Andreas fault runs north from the inland deserts, through the cleft that separates the Gabilan Mountains and the Diablo Range in San Benito County, then San Juan Bautista and the Santa Cruz Mountains before falling out to the sea just south of San Francisco. The land west of the fault was formed as the North American Plate, in the process of subducting the Pacific Plate, scraped a jumble of old sea floor and granitic extrusions into the ranges and valleys we call home.
Our rainy season usually runs from November through March. Mountains abutting the coast will often see six times the rainfall as valleys in their lee. These temperate rainforests are the southern terminus of the majestic redwoods. Less rain and lighter soils give way to live oaks and manzanitas then the chapparal and open grasslands that dry to color California’s golden hills.
Seeing Place
Our project is built on the premise that each place has an individual character built of its unique blend of climatic and geologic factors. This character is then refined through its interaction with the flora, fauna and eventually human populations over time.
The character of a place is built upon the textures of the soil, the qualities of the sunlight and the taste of the air. To fully see that place is to spend the time to know the ways weather and storms move there, where the water pools, why the flora varies from spot to spot and where the different animals that den and hunt their choose to make their range. Knowing place is to understand how these interactions came to be, which populations and people moved across that ground and how they adapted it to their vision and needs.
Place lives on the the wind and a vineyard is like a sail; properly trimmed it carries the essence from grape through barrel and bottle and into the glass — often a real or figurative world away. In the aromas, tastes and textures reside a Prussian remembrance or a travelers wish. Proper vine growing and winemaking start with learning the place and then, with craft, the weaving of the sail.
Terroir
Terroir is often simplified to the soil and climate that affect a wine’s aromas, flavors and texture, but it is much more than that. Wine is the interaction of people and place in an eternal feedback loop. In agriculture communities the hopes, dreams and self-regard of the people mix with the perceived potential of the land and market. For a farmer, every year is a gamble. For a vigneron, a vineyard is an aspiration – a bet that these vines will bear something special from the place and sustain the family; maybe for generations.
Wines of place don’t just reflect the dirt, storms and sunlight. They reflect this self-regard. If a community views itself as luxurious or esteemed, its winemakers will make decisions that push their wines toward expression of luxuriousness or power – a minority might distinguish themselves in a willful refutation of that view but even that is a reflection of the self-regard. Humble communities typically make humble wine to match the unadorned fare on their tables and the tastes they have developed to match.
European terroirs developed over millennia, with viticulture often dating to or predating Roman conquest. Wine styles, diet and culture slowly evolved hand in hand. Widespread viticulture in California dates to statehood. Much of our agricultural growth has come in the last century. We are, in essence, developing our food and wine culture and how it interacts with our viticulture, our terroir, in real time.
The rich valley bottoms around the Monterey Bay teem with produce. Our main crops are strawberries, leafy greens, artichokes, brussels sprouts and brassicas like broccoli. Citrus and avocado orchards intermingle with vineyards on the benches. Abalone, sea weeds, petrale sole, rock cod and squid are harvested from the ocean. Our wines emerge clean and bright, redolent of citrus blossom or crisp fruits, perfect for pairing with light, bright coastal cuisine.
