Last weekend a few of us got together to taste through as many of the local 2007 Cabernets as we could lay our hands on. The event was organised by Paul and Stef Romero of Stefania Wine, who were curious how their wines would stand up against similar wines from the region. The answer? Very well.

The wines were served in groups of three. Most of the people were not trying to take notes, so Wes Barton and myself soon found ourselves behind the rest of the group. As such the notes are somewhat brief, and are in the order the wines were poured. As far as I'm aware none of the wines were decanted or aired prior to pouring.

Our overall impression was that 2007 resulted in some very nice wines indeed. The group favourite was the
the Martin Ranch Dos Rios Vineyard, which was showing particularly well right now. Ridge Monte Bello and Mount Eden Estate did well as you might expect, despite being very young, and the Stefania Santa Cruz Mountains was just outside the top three.

2007 Mount Eden Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nice complex nose - initially cassis, mint and smoke with some mushroom emerging. That mushroom and cassis showed up again on the palate, with drying tannins on the finish. Good depth, and lots of structure.

2007 Cooper Garrod George's Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose was sweeter than #1, with sherbert and bramble.Fruity with bramble and boysenberry, plenty of tannin
eucalyptus coming out time.

2007 Chaine d'Or, Santa Cruz Mountains
Aromas of raw meat and dust.Tight, dry. grippy tannins - clearly needed air. Noticeable green pepper note, with some nice brambly fruit.

2007 Kathryn Kennedy 'Small Lot', Santa Cruz Mountains
Soft nose with nice black and red fruits. Smooth fruit - redcurrant and blackcurrant. I was thinking Saratoga or Santa Clara Valley.

2007 Ridge Monte Bello, Santa Cruz Mountains
Bright berry nose - blackberry and blackcurrant. Lots of blackcurrant cordial, tannin and - particularly - oak. Way too young.

2007 Martin Ranch Thérèse Vineyards Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains
Very perfumed nose, sweet smooth fruit, drying tannins. (By this point I was way behind, so my notes started getting terser.)

2007 P•M Staiger, Santa Cruz Mountains
Smoky, brambly nose. Smooth, sweet fruit. While enjoyable, this seemed the least complex of all the wines poured.

2007 La Honda Lonehawk Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains
Hint of volatile actidity on the nose? Lots of bramble and blackcurrant fruit, and lots of chewy tannin. I was guessing the Kennedy Small Lot.

2007 Stefania, Santa Cruz Mountains
Interesting nose; for some reason it made me think of a toilet puck. Structured berry fruit and lots of mouth-coating tannin. Needs time, but should be great.

2007 Ahlgren Bates Ranch, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose of barnyard and herbs, with the alcohol showing, but on the palate there was sweet redcurrant, turning oaky on the finish.

2007 Stefania Uvas Creek Vineyard, Santa Clara Valley
Earthy and ripe plum. Lots of sweet peppery blackcurrant fruit, tannin and earth.

2007 Woodside Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose dominated by smoky oak. Rather intense with hints of graphite and spice backed by smooth tannins.

2007 Thomas Fogarty, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose showed smoked sausage. Smooth, sweet cassis; I wouldn't age this, it's good now. I think this was the least expensive wine in the lineup, having been found at Sunnyvale Costco for under $20.

2007 Domaine Eden, Santa Cruz Mountains
Elegant, feminine, light. There's smooth red fruit and bright acidity. I guessed Cooper Garrod, so was only a couple of miles out.

2007 House Family Vineyards, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose is earthy and smoky. Seemed very tannic; there's some good black fruit there but it needs time.

2007 Ridge Estate, Santa Cruz Mountains
Rich nose showing caramel and eucalyptus. Light with some bright black fruits but decent structure.

2007 Martin Ranch Thérèse Vineyards Dos Rios Vineyard, Santa Clara Valley
Nose made me think of breakfast cereal. Lots of sweet caramel and black fruit, with nice chewy tannins. Quite the crowd pleaser.

2007 Creekview Vineyards, Santa Clara Valley
Nose of black fruit and eucalyptus; good intensity but very tannic at the moment.

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The Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association runs an annual Commercial Wine Competition, open to all of its members. This year's competition was held last Monday at Ma Maison restaurant in Aptos, and I was  invited to be a judge. The judging panel is made up of both trade professionals - restauranteurs, sommeliers, wine buyers etc., and consumers.

Judging Table. 8 judges each tasting a different set of wines.

I arrived in Aptos at 9:30 and was greeted by the chilly grey morning skies that help to make the western side of the mountain such a great place to grow Pinot Noir. I signed in at the main desk and was assigned Flight #5 - Pinot Noirs. When everyone had arrived we were led into the restaurant and told to sit at any table, in front of our particular number.

Each table had 8 judges, with every judge tasting a different flight. The purpose of this is so that you can talk to your fellow judges without worrying about affecting the results. The wines were laid out on the table in front of us, with each glass labelled only with a 4 digit code number. We were also given a sample of a white wine (a rather pleasant New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc at a guess) as an introduction.

The organisers gave some basic instructions on evaluating the wine. We were to score on the 100 point scale, with 90+ indicating a gold medal, 85-89 indicating silver and 80-85 indicating bronze. We were advised that around 20-25% of wines typically fall into the Gold category and around half fall into the Silver category. Very few get no medal at all. This seemed reasonable; in my personal scoring system anything below 85 isn't worth buying, anything below 80 is not worth drinking. On this scale 70-79 is supposed to indicate an 'average' wine, so I take that to indicate the mass of sub-$5 supermarket plonk.

As with most blind tastings the wines were poured in the same order for everyone. I typically go through the wines in order and smell them, to get a first impression. I then taste them in an order based on those impressions; if a wine seems odd or unbalanced I'll leave it until last. After tasting them all I'll go through them again to confirm my decisions.

The first flight. Each wine is identified by a 4 digit code number

The first flight was fairly straightforward. There were 7 wines, 2 of which I gave Gold scores to. They turned out to be 2008 Clos LaChance Santa Cruz Mountains and 2008 Sonnet Muns Vineyard. I gave good marks to the 2008 Domenico Santa Cruz Mountains and 2008 Black Ridge Estate.

The second flight had one wine that I found particularly unusual. It had almost overpowering notes of white pepper and spice. After trying it a couple of times I decided that it worked and awarded it a Gold - it turned out to be the 2008 Beauregard Santa Cruz Mountains. Another Gold went to the 2008 Santa Cruz Mountains Vineyard Branciforte Creek, and an honourable mention to the 2008 Ahlgren Veranda Vineyard.

The final flight was unusual in that the first and last wines seemed very strange; I left them until the end and declared them both to be not medal worthy. My favourite turned out to be the 2008 Woodside Estate, with 2008 Muccigrosso and 2009 Soquel Estate also scraping Golds.

We then had a pause while the administrators tallied up the scores to determine the top 10 wines. While we were waiting there were some snacks including some delicious rillettes on mini croissants.

Finally the top 10 wines were revealed. We were told the variety in each case, and they were presented in order of lightest to heaviest, so I sampled them in that order. I was suprised to see that the winning Pinot Noir was not on my tasting list. It turned out that there were so many entrants that a fourth flight of Pinots had been given to a different set of judges, who had also been tasting the 'mixed' reds and blends. Frankly I wasn't overly impressed by their choice; there seemed to be a lot of sulphur evident, with the nose showing struck match and the fruit muted.

One of the judges analysing a wine.

Picking a favourite from 10 completely diverse wines is tough; ranking them in order is tougher still. Of the reds I particularly liked the Cabernet Sauvignon which was revealed to be the 2007 Woodside Estate; they also were awarded the best Zinfandel. I correctly guessed that the Petite Sirah was from Sones, though I thought it was probably from French Camp. The Soquel Chardonnay was very good and well balanced, and the dessert wine - a 2004 Angelica from Picchetti - was in a class of its own in more ways than one.

But in the end the top award went to Martin Ranch for their delicious 2009 Thérèse Vineyards Malbec. What's even more impressive is that Martin Ranch also scooped the top honour last year for their 2007 Lester Family Vineyard Syrah. Congratulations to Dan and Thérèse Martin!

Top 10 wines (Santa Cruz Mountains AVA unless noted)
2009 Martin Ranch Thérèse Vineyards Malbec Santa Clara Valley, Dos Ninas Vineyard
2010 Soquel Chardonnay, Ben Lomond Mountain, Meyley Vineyard
2009 Black Ridge Viognier
2007 Byington Pinot Noir Block 4
2008 Martin Ranch JD Hurley Merlot, Santa Clara Valley
2008 Sones Petite Sirah, Lodi
2008 Bargetto Syrah, Nelson Vineyard
2007 Woodside Cabernet Estate
2007 Woodside Zinfandel Estate
2004 Picchetti Angelica of Chardonnay

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Despite the 16.2% alcohol, there's very little heat apparent. Instead the nose is rather floral, with notes of brambles and coffee.
On the palate there's lots of sweet fruit and soft tannins. There's decent acidity too and a lightly spicy finish. A nice wine, but a little on the ripe side for my taste. 88

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These days I'm finding that I enjoy Chardonnay more the less that it's manipulated, or at least that it appears to be manipulated. When I complimented Paul Romero on his nicely balanced 2008 Chardonnay he commented that he's reluctant to disclose the details because it sees more new oak than you might think.

Having said that, I appreciate that many people still want a Chardonnay that shows the typical hallmarks of California winemaking; ripe fruit, lots of new French oak and malolactic fermentation, giving a wine that shows butter, vanilla and toast rather than fruit. Those people would probably enjoy the 2007 Ahlgren Chardonnay. The first sniff reminded me of sherbet - creamy, effervescent vanilla and it's got bags of buttered toast and creamy mouthfeel. But despite all that there are still some nice white peach, lime and wet stone flavours discernible - particularly on the finish - which hint at the potential of the vineyard. 87 $27 168 cases

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On my recent visit to Ahlgren Vineyards, Val Ahlgren gave me a bottle of the 2005 Semillon to review at my leisure. I finally got around to opening it last night.

Now most of the Semillon based wines that I've drunk have been sweet; I'm a big fan of Sauternes, but don't recall any dry Semillon that I liked enough to buy twice, so I was curious to see what this would be like.

Nice pale golden colour (the photo doesn't really show it very well). The nose is quite floral - white flowers, with pear and pineapple, and a little honey. It has a rich mouthfeel from barrel fermentation coupled with almost 3 years in the bottle. As to the flavour, well it's rather like a dry Sauternes. Now I've had dry wines made by Sauternes producers such as Rieussec; they tend to show structure, acidity, minerality and not a great deal of fruit. This isn't like that; it really does taste like a dry Sauternes. Certainly there's acidity, but there's tropical fruit and honey, yet it's bone dry. Instead of the botrytis spiciness there's some white pepper. Initially the wine was cold (since that's the way my wife likes her whites); as it warmed up to room temperature it showed much more character. At $17 a bottle I would call it a Value. 89

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The disparity between life in Silicon Valley and the Santa Cruz Mountains never ceases to amaze me. As a high-tech flatlander I find it difficult to imagine life without broadband internet, cellphone service and TiVo. Simple things like electricity and fresh running water are just taken as read.

But up in the mountains things are different. Take Dexter and Val Ahlgren for example. They built their wooden cabin on a secluded hillside on Highway 9, outside Boulder Creek. There is no water supply, not even a well; instead they catch rainwater in huge tanks and occasionally have it brought in by tanker. So it's somewhat surprising to realise that this is also the home of Ahlgren Vineyards.

Val Ahlgren was a teacher who began making wine in the garage of their Sunnyvale home in the 1960s out of whatever fruits were available. In the early 1970s Dexter sold his engineering business and the couple purchased their idyllic property. The winery is in the cellar below the house; it was bonded in 1976.

Grapes are sourced primarily from a couple of well known and highly regarded sources; Bates Ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Ventana Vineyard in Monterey County. They also source Zinfandel and Semillon from Livermore and Pinot Noir from the Santa Cruz Mountains. There is a small 1 acre vineyard (with the potential for maybe 5 more acres) which is planted to Pinot Noir; the first successful crop was in 2007, when one barrel was made.

The winery is open to the public on Saturdays from 12-4PM. There is no tasting fee.

2007 Chardonnay, Ventana Vineyard, Monterey County
Nice nose of tropical fruit and caramel. Sweet, creamy flavours of asian pear and pineapple; rich and full bodied with balanced acidity and a long finish. Recommended $27

2004 Merlot, Bates Ranch, Santa Cruz Mountains
Super-ripe, plummy nose leading into sweet, rich, heavy plum fruit and a big finish. Surprising acidity and lack of heat given the 16.2% alcohol. $30

2004 Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains
Sourced from a vineyard near Aptos. Lovely cherry nose, nice fresh cherry flavour and bright acidity. $30

2007 Estate Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains
Unreleased; only 25 cases made. (Will be available to wine club members only.)
Nose of rose petals and ruby grapefruit. Light, fresh flavours of red cherry; good balance, nice tannins. $NA

2002 Syrah, Ventana Vineyard, Monterey County
Black fruit and tobacco on the nose. Dry, tart black cherry and plum with a little white pepper; lots of acidity and good mouthfeel. $15

NV Zinfandel Livermore Valley
2% residual sugar, 16.9% ABV
Spicy raspberry notes with some heat on the nose, but not so evident on the palate. Sweet candied fruit; raspberry and loganberry with a slightly port-like finish. $35

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A few odds and ends picked up in conversation.

Ahlgren: The winery is still up for sale, but no buyers are in sight. The big problem is that people with the kind of money that the property/business is worth ($2-$3 million) want something that's shiny and new.

Trout Gulch: Bernie Turgeon is now in his 80s and has retired. Son Gerry is continuing the winery, but it's not his day job and has been scaled back significantly. The recent appearance of the 2002 vintage at Whole Foods was as a result of clearing out the back inventory to make space. The old estate vineyard was sold some time ago and is now the Pinto Valley Vineyard, managed by Beauregard.

Several wineries are about to move into new tasting rooms in the industrial complex on Ingalls Street in Santa Cruz, previously occupied by Bonny Doon. New tenants include Sones and Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard. There's an article about it on winesandvines.com

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