BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wine-haven-taste-of-the-mountains-passport-days-tickets-18007072639

The Passport Days event is sponsored by Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association and will feature wines from Russian Ridge, Windy Oaks Estate, Left Bend, The Mountain Winery, Roudon Smith, Cinnabar, and Domenico.

“Our coastal mountain viticultural region is known for its small producers who consistently craft world-class wines,” says Megan Metz, executive director of the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association. “We are thrilled to bring these celebrated wineries together to give festivalgoers a truly exceptional winetasting flight that reflects the distinctive terroirs of our region.”

San Carlos winery Russian Ridge is run by father-son team Scott and Spencer Townsend. Made with fruit sourced from single vineyards (Santa Cruz Mountains and nearby Paso Robles and southern Santa Clara County), each of their vintages expresses the characteristics of its unique location.

Jim and Judy Schultze founded Windy Oaks Estate in 1996 in Corralitos on a ridge overlooking Monterey Bay. The ocean-influenced setting and climate produce a distinctive vineyard terroir that comes through in their Burgundy-style Pinot Noirs. Dedicated to sustainability, their farming practices are labor intensive while their winemaking approach is minimalist.

The grapes that go into Left Bend wines are harvested from five small vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, including the backyard vineyard that winemaker Gary Robinson has farmed organically since 2008. The name Left Bend refers to the slight leftward bend in the San Andreas Fault, which contributed to the formation of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The Mountain Winery, home of the famous Paul Masson château in Saratoga, dates back to the heady days at the turn of the 20th century, when the French expatriate entertained the San Francisco elite at soirées flowing with his celebrated champagne. Masson went on to produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and since the turn of the 21st century Mountain Winery’s Jeffrey Patterson has been following in his footsteps, continuing in the Burgundian style of austere, well-structured, complex wines.

Roudon Smith Winery was founded in the 1970’s by two Silicon Valley engineers who started their enterprise in a tiny basement. It has evolved under the new ownership of Bordeaux Business School Wine MBA Al Drewke, who takes advantage of the resources of a winery co-op based in Watsonville to produce wines with fruit from small growers on the Central Coast.

Tom Mudd, a Stanford PhD research engineer, saw winemaking as a kind of alchemy of science and “nature’s magic.” He founded Cinnabar Winery as an expression of that vision. The next Mudd generation, Karina and Jack, continue in his footsteps with the goal of making wines that express the aromas and flavors of the distinct vines from which they came.

Dominick Chirichillo was named after his Italian grandfather, who taught him about winemaking in the family’s New York basement. It was only fitting to name his winery, Domenico, after his namesake. That Italian heritage carries through to the winemaking style at his San Carlos winery, which also hosts amateur winemakers at his Bacchus Winemaking Club.

Outdoor seating will be provided for participants of the Wine Haven event, where they can relax with their wine samples while enjoying the romantic Italian string duo HeartStrings Music. All of the sampled wines will be available for sale by the bottle (to take home).

“With this unique showcase of handcrafted wines from our local winemaking region, The Mountain View Art & Wine Festival continues to offer our attendees exciting new experiences every year,” says Chamber of Commerce President Oscar Garcia. “And we’re thrilled to be including two additional wineries in the 2015 Wine Haven tent.”

The $45 tickets to Taste of the Mountains Passport Days will include a commemorative festival wine glass, a sample of all of the wines from all seven wineries, and a Passport booklet (a $55 value itself) valid for two years of Passport Days to the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Festival attendees who already hold Passport Days booklets will receive the added benefit of discounts on wine purchases from some of the participating Wine Haven wineries, in addition to complementary tickets to An Evening of Wine and Roses on November 7, a wine tasting and silent auction event.

Passport Days, a unique wine country experience throughout the idyllic Santa Cruz Mountains appellation, has been hosted by its legendary winemakers since 1993. Passport booklet holders are invited four Saturdays a year to visit 53 wineries offering wine-and-food pairings, entertainment, and events such as art shows, concerts, vineyard and winery tours, and wine education sessions.

The Santa Cruz Mountains Appellation is defined by its unique mountain topography, with terroirs reflecting the varying elevations, soils and microclimates from its foggy coastline to its 2,600-foot ridgetops. Granted American Viticultural Area (AVA) status in 1981, the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA area is only approximately 1,500 acres, but comprises over 200 small wineries.

Category

Date & Time

Location & full address

Event Admins