Caraccioli Cellars

The second day started with bubbles and breakfast, in the estate Escolle vineyard at Caraccioli Cellars, who is becoming one of the finest examples of what American fizz has to offer. The vineyard is quite expansive at 124 acres, which allows the winery to now only use 100% estate fruit since 2015. The vineyards northern location in the SLH provides amazing Chardonnay for their Brut Cuvée along with over 30 different rootstocks and clonal selections to add complexity. Although there is no limestone, soil here has low pH ensuring the crisp tartness needed for sparkling wine grapes. The winemakers in SLH mentioned in fact how tartaric acid additions are needed very little as most vintages have an excessive amount.

Michel Salgues, previously head winemaker at Roederer Estate now leads winemaking operations, an interesting fact since it was mentioned here how this vineyard was originally the first choice for Roederer Estate before they bought land in Mendocino. Michel prefers the use of the first grape pressing to capture fruit purity and elegance, using small containers during harvest to avoid premature crushing and the use of barrel fermentation to provide additional roundness to complement the tart acidity. The Caraccioli 2013 Brut Rose is a great example of the round suppleness their wine contains along with raspberry and strawberry fruit and orange blossom aromas. Secondary fermentation in bottle can be as much as 4 years plus an additional year aging under cork for complete integration of the cuvée and dosage. All this of course is a fancy way of saying the wine here is good. Really good.

Mansfield-Dunne

We next visited the highest elevation vineyard in SLH, Cortada Alta reaching as high as 1,600 ft, through a steep struggling incline. This beautiful vineyard is planted to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, and very small amounts of Viognier. Here we tasted Mansfield-Dunne and August West wines alongside winemaker Ed Kurtzman and Vineyard Manager Ruben Balderas. When planning this vineyard there would be a struggle to find water, a common story in SLH, with development finally taking place after 4 years of drilling water wells. The 2017 Cortada Alta Special Cuvee Pinot Noir represents the start of a program the winery will carry forward featuring the best Pinot from their favorite barrel of the vintage. This year happens to be a low yielding Swan clone of 25 cases featuring ripe fruits of strawberry and cherry with a velvety texture and rich oak spice that integrate well with the wine. A beautiful representation of SLH Pinot Noir and the quality of Mansfield-Dunne.

As long as a Mansfield-Dunne wine is in sight, your view is pretty good.

Hahn Family Wines

The Hahn estate is a former horse and cattle ranch

The tour continued next to the Hahn Estate and for many wine lovers this producer was the gateway for experiencing the Santa Lucia Highlands. In 1979 Nicolaus (Nicky) Hahn first purchased vineyards in SLH, envisioning big dreams for this region and wasting little time to make them a reality. He quickly released the first Hahn vintage wine in 1980, purchased the Doctors Vineyard in 1990 and was instrumental in establishing the SLH AVA in 1990. Hahn eventually would recognize the quality and marketability of SLH Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, replanting their vineyards at great cost to these two grapes in 2001. It was a great pleasure to meet Nicky’s son Philip Hahn, who came back to the family business in 2007, inheriting the responsibility of overseeing the 650 acres of estate vineyards and increasing the growth and quality of the Hahn luxury Lucienne single vineyard wines. Philip is an amazing ambassador for the region, telling the history of his family and explaining his vision for the future of Hahn wines.

Director of Winemaking Paul Clifton was convinced to join Hahn through the ability to work with great SLH estate vineyard sites such as Doctor’s, Lone Oak, and Smith. He guided our group through a tasting of single vineyard Lucienne Pinot Noir explaining what made each site unique and how it impacted wine characteristics. The 2016 Doctor’s Vineyard was impressive with its dark color and dense fruit profile of black cherry wrapped around tart cranberry and orange peel citrus acidity. The wine sees a healthy amount of new oak, imparting spice and smoke. Try not to drink Lucienne Pinot Noir too young as time will unveil its true potential.

Pisoni Family Vineyards

It was quite the pleasure getting to experience the hospitality of the Pisoni Family and tasting through their Luli, Lucia and library vintages of Pisoni wines. The Pisoni family has farmed this region since 1952, planting many acres of lettuce, celery, broccoli and cauliflower on the Salinas valley floor. In the mid to late 70’s Gary Pisoni convinced his father to give him the hillsides to plant wine grapes with this iconic line, “…have you ever been invited to a $250 black tie lettuce tasting?” Gary’s sons now handle the operation with Mark overseeing vineyard management and Jeff taking on winemaking duties. Through Marks hard work, Pisoni Family Vineyards won the California Green Medal for Sustainable Winegrowing in 2020. Biodiversity here is prized in the soil and above with the creation of beehives and an insectary planted to native species that attracts insects that will help control those that are not considered beneficial.

During the tasting in their cellar I found the 2014 Pisoni Estate Chardonnay to be excellent with weighty tropical fruit kept to a minimum with bruised pear, yellow apple and quince flavors. The 2005 Pisoni Estate Pinot Noir was aging beautifully with a dusty earthy texture and still ripe raspberry fruit with cinnamon spice and zesty orange citrus. Grapes not destined for the Pisoni or Lucia labels combines with other sustainably farmed SLH fruit to create their value Luli brand, a partnership with Master Sommelier Sara Floyd. The Luli brand represents SLH at its affordable best. Contributing some of the smartest buys for wine lists and trapping everything that makes the SLH great in a bottle. Luli Pinot Noir tends to have a fuller body, making it very approachable for a wide group of people, with lovely bright lifted aromatics of strawberry and black cherry that jump from your glass. The 2017 Luli SLH Syrah was particularly impressive, showcasing all the varietal character of the grape you could ask for with olive brine, violet, blueberry and subtle savory beef jerky with black pepper.

Folktale Winery & Vineyard

All good things must come to an end which happened to be at Folktale Winery & Vineyard for our tour. The property originally dates to 1982, expanding over the years to its present condition when it was bought by winemaker Gregory Ahn in 2015 and transformed into Folktale Winery & Vineyards. Their estate vineyards are located in the Arroyo Seco sub region of Monterey County, but they also make many wines featuring SLH grapes. What stands out here is the amount of diversity, from sparkling Grenache Blanc Pétillant Naturel, carbonic Sangiovese Nouveau, skin contact orange wine and late harvest Gewurztraminer. When a winery makes this amount of different wines overall quality can get diluted, but Folktale artfully manages each wine with the unique attention needed to make it the best it could be. This is a must visit winery for anyone nearby and well worth the drive or flight even if you’re not. The grounds are beautiful with architecture that makes you feel like you’re in a Disney movie.

Customers may ultimately choose between wineries when purchasing bottles but producers here are in competition with creating the best wines they can and not each other. This realization of working together elevates the quality and reputation of the Santa Lucia Highlands for everyone involved in its wine industry. While some of the information taught on this trip could be discovered by opening a book, I have to admit that I much prefer learning though tasting SLH wines. Sometimes the best teacher is feeling a misty Monterey Bay morning, an afternoon of sunshine, and a sudden rush of high winds to tell you what the Santa Lucia Highlands is all about.