These Central Coast winemakers are making lively, trendy wines from non-mainstream varieties.
By Laura Ness
Age matters. A wine’s provenance stems from the vineyard and, for some winemakers, older is better. Here are some young winemakers from California’s Central Coast who are making lively, trendy wines from non-mainstream varieties — some from the oldest vines around. And while they’re also not opposed to making Chardonnay or Pinot Noir, just don’t expect it to taste like what your parents drank. Instead, they’re pursuing that fresh, unmanipulated style that is gaining popularity with younger wine drinkers.
Megan Bell
Santa Cruz-based Margins winemaker Megan Bell embraces grapes on the margins of notoriety. Her portfolio includes edgy varieties such as Aligoté and Sagrantino (Calleri Vineyard), and Assyrtiko and Verdejo (Paicines Ranch), both in California’s San Benito County. Her love of Chenin Blanc, stemming from her internship days in the Loire, inspired her to seek old vine fruit from the organic Massa Vineyard in Carmel Valley (1968).
In 2016, she convinced fourth-generation farmer, David Ogilvie, to convert a block of Chenin at Wilson Vineyard (1998, Clarksburg), to organic. Then owner of organically farmed Mesa del Sol Vineyard, Ann Hougham, gave Bell the chance to make a spirited Sangiovese from vines planted in 1998 on the banks of a deep gorge in the Arroyo Seco River, on the edge of the Ventana Wilderness. “I was looking for grapes that could create a high-acid light red wine in the style I prefer, and this was a serendipitous opportunity that I could not turn down.”
Ryan Kobza
After making Pinot Noir at Sonoma-Cutrer, Nevada native, Ryan Kobza, vectored to Chateau Montelena, then came to the Central Coast to work at Bernardus. Working custom crush for vintner Ian Brand, renowned for his love of old vines, introduced him to Pat Wirz of Wirz Vineyards in the Cienega Valley, who has gorgeous old-vine, head-trained, dry-farmed Riesling. “Pat has been there literally his whole life and has farmed it the way his father farmed it and the way it would have been farmed when it was first planted,” says Kobza. “There aren’t many places left in this industry like that: parcels largely unchanged, including ownership, for a hundred years or more.”
Here, Kobza also found 117-year old Mourtaou (aka Cab Pfeffer), as well as Mourvedre, Zinfandel, Rose of Peru and Palomino, combining them in a spicy, spunky — yet serious — red called Mixed Feelings, a red field blend. “The Wirz vineyard was in existence long before I was born and my hope is it will be there long after I’m gone,” says Kobza. “The wines I’m making from that place are such a small snapshot in time of the lifespan of what a vineyard can be.”
Keegan Mayo
Keegan Mayo’s day job is winemaker at Bargetto Winery, the largest in Santa Cruz County. His personal brand, Assiduous, speaks to the seemingly easy-going surfer dude’s attention to detail. Time has taught him to favor his artistic side. Says Mayo, “You lean on instinct, instead of intervention. I do a lot more cleaning and a lot less additions.”
His wines, including a skin contact Grüner Veltliner from Mesa del Rio (Monterey), and the structurally fascinating Pinot Gris from Basor Vineyard (Watsonville), are vibrant and food-friendly. “You can count on one hand the vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains that grow Pinot Gris,” says Mayo, “I wanted the coolest site possible, and Basor sits in the fog most mornings; it’s about as cool of a site that you can have while still being able to ripen the fruit.”
For his Cabernet Sauvignon, Mayo turned to the legendary Bates Ranch at the southern edge of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. He calls it “one of the great idiosyncratic sites” of the AVA. Choosing fruit from old dry-farmed blocks planted in the 1970s, as well as newer plantings, Mayo’s leathery, sinewy yet ethereal 2022 Bates Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon tastes like the Old West.
Samuel L. Smith
After spending 8 years as winemaker at Morgan Winery in the Santa Lucia Highlands, Samuel L. Smith jumped from the dock into solo waters. For his Samuel Louis wines, he sources from only stellar organic and mountainous sites on the Central Coast, like Coastview, a 2,300-foot site in the Gabilan Mountains, planted in 1999.
Winegrower Russell Joyce introduced Smith to Coastview, which Smith favors for its “decomposed granite, high elevation, temperate climate, organic farming and beautiful views.” His pristine, focused, low alcohol, acid-driven and detail-oriented wines, including Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blends from several pan-appellation vineyards, are unusually compelling. Case in point: the 2023 Samuel L. Smith “Granitiers” Chardonnay, from the Coastview, Escolle and Pelio Vineyards, all laced with limestone from the sea beneath which they once lay. Smith describes it as, “A very fresh, fruit- and floral-driven Chardonnay from the granitic terroirs of Monterey County, with some salty minerality.” It tastes like sand, sun and fog: from whence it came.
Kristie Tacey
Kristie Tacey of Tessier Wines in Berkeley is a scientist and Michigan refugee who came to the Bay Area to work on the Human Genome Project. Soon, she found herself enamored of grape genealogy and began to seek out organic vineyards with storied flavor. Among them are Zabala (Arroyo Seco, Monterey), from which she makes a skin contact Chardonnay that’s far from “California style.” Instead, it’s edgy with apple skins and a finish of orange creamsicle.
“I got connected to Zabala in 2017 through winemaker Ryan Stirm,” says Tacey. “I was looking for a new white grape that had good acidity and he suggested Riesling and to reach out to Luis.” Since 2021, she has gotten her rosé grapes, Chardonnay, Grenache, Gamay and Pinot Noir from Zabala as well, combining them in wines as bold as her psychedelic labels.
Her Day Dreaming, blend is riotous and joyful coferment of 100% whole cluster Grenache Noir, 33% whole cluster Pinot Noir and 100% de-stemmed Gamay Noir, showing citrus, rhubarb, ginger and strawberry chile preserves, while Electric Ladyland, a mashup of Albariño, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Rosé, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris, delivers high acid, lip-stinging, joyous juice that makes your tonsils vibrate. Jimi Hendrix would definitely approve.
Laura Ness
Laura Ness is an avid wine journalist, storyteller and wine columnist (Edible:Monterey, Los Gatos Magazine San Jose Mercury News, The Livermore Independent), and a long time contributor to Wine Industry Network. Known as “HerVineNess,” she judges wine competitions throughout California and has a corkscrew in every purse. However, she wishes that all wineries would adopt screwcaps!
