TASTE MORGAN Best all-stainless Chardonnay in the business. All the wines are well-balanced and fruity, but with a track-record for bottle-aging. PN and CH from top vyds in the Highlands. Grassy SB; wonderful Riesling. WRATH As in Steinbeck’s Grapes of … Originally TX oil money. Own some 70 acres in the Santa Lucia Highlands. Friendly tasting room and some pretty good PN at modest prices. … Continue reading Carmel Walking Tour
SAUSALITO CANYON Fruit from vineyard just south of Lake Lopez. Dry farmed. 3 acres of Zin vines date from 1880. Full expression of unusual terroir. ANCIENT PEAKS Southern ranch right over the Cuesta Grade from SLO near source of Salinas River. Cool climate. TURLEY Old Pesenti Ranch. Incredibly flavorful fruit. Now owned by Helen Turley’s (Marcassin) brother, emergency physician Larry Turley from Napa. Stay: PASO … Continue reading Zinfandel Traditions Tour
CHARDONNAY VS. NAPA AND SONOMA Telling apart two $10 California Chardonnays is usually a matter of quality rather than regional style. At that level grapes are very likely to have been combined across several regions. Chardonnays costing $35 per bottle retail, however, are much more likely to start revealing regional signatures. Napa, Sonoma, and the Central Coast all offer different characteristics, and separate styles. Napa’s … Continue reading Central Coast – U.S. Comparison
HARVEST ~ SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER As a general rule of thumb, the cooler, maritime districts of the Central Coast are going to be three weeks behind Napa Valley in terms of harvest. That’s not true for Paso Robles, but it is for northern Monterey, western Santa Barbara, and South County in San Luis Obispo. So harvest isn’t likely to get rolling until the 3rd week … Continue reading Central Coast Seasons
CHARDONNAY & WHITE BURGUNDY The place to start any discussion about Central Coast wine is Chardonnay. California changed the world’s perception of Chardonnay in the 1970’s by introducing the idea of fruit. Prior to that point white Burgundy had been the model. The Chardonnay grapes pressed into service making white Burgundy have a very difficult time getting ripe during the short growing season of northern … Continue reading Central Coast – International Comparison
Viticulture in California began on the Central Coast in the 1770’s. It began there with the Mission economy, for religious purposes, and it pretty much died there sixty years later as the Missions were secularized. Wine needs a market, and the Central Coast was too far away from the people to be transporting casks of wine on ox carts. The Gold Rush (1849 to about … Continue reading History of the Central Coast
Technically the Central Coast AVA runs from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We have chosen, for our purposes, to treat the Region as Santa Barbara County west of Lake Cachuma, San Luis Obispo County west of the San Andreas Fault in Parkfield, most of Monterey County, and a small piece of San Benito County surrounding Hollister. We’re going to handle Santa Cruz County separately in … Continue reading Central Coast: Getting There
Bruce Cass Wine Tours 