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	Upcoming Events Recent Events Calendar Regional Groups Calendar Archive About SIGS	Knockout Wines in the Santa Cruz Mountains by Tim Patterson You’ve probably enjoyed the wines of Ridge Vineyards, and you undoubtedly know about the wines and the antics of Randall Grahm at Bonny Doon. What you may not know is that the Santa Cruz Mountains are home to sixty wineries, including several that can hold their own with any producer in the state. It’s a treasure trove of fine wine, right under our Bay Area noses, and well worth checking out. That was certainly the conclusion of the two dozen SFPFS members and guests who braved two miles of twisty dirt road Sunday afternoon, April 22, for a tasting at Mount Eden Vineyards. The Mount Eden property is hallowed ground in the history of California winemaking. It’s in the heart of the vineyard land first made famous by Paul Masson, the Burgundian immigrant who raised the bar for California wine in the early 20th century: and it was here that Martin Ray, a visionary (and, yes, eccentric) winemaker blazed a trail of premium grapegrowing and winemaking from the 1940s through the 1960s. Mount Eden Vineyards winemaker Jeffrey Patterson explains the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA as SFPFS member Victoria Green drinks it in. Photo courtesy Frank Dietrich. Mount Eden’s current winemaker, Jeffrey Patterson, led off the tasting with an overview of the history of the area and the distinguishing characteristics of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA (a legally defined American Viticultural Area). While the AVA covers hundreds of square miles, most of it is vertical, and all of it is above the fog line, about 600 feet above sea level. For all the expanse of gorgeous scenery, there are only about 800 acres of grape vines—many of the area’s wineries rely in large part on grapes purchased from other regions. What came through as Patterson and the other winemakers—Nathan Kandler of Thomas Fogarty, Tony Craig of Savannah Chanelle and Sonnet, and Brian Casselden of Woodside Vineyards—led us through the region and their wines was an attitude, a passion for winemaking and a dedication to teasing the best out of grapes grown under trying conditions and far away from the spotlight of consumer frenzy some other wine regions bathe in. Among the wines tasted (all from Santa Cruz grapes) were two that were ten years old and showing nicely, and two that had not yet been released—the Food Society got the first public tastes. Martin Ray would have been proud of his successors. Next up in the Local Wine Tour series: What you don’t know about Livermore Valley wines.	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