Sunday morning Stef and I got a chance to head to Calero park for a hike that took us about 2 hours. We haven’t been able to go hiking as much as we used to with the weekend demands on our time, but this Sunday was a good combination of free time, and good weather.
Calero is just about 15 minutes from our house. 5 miles actually, but there is no real direct route. The park is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains and our hike starts out at about 300 feet elevation. A quick 3/4 mile climb brings us up to about 1100 feet. These pictures are from the high point of the climb, just as we clear one ridge line.
You might recognize the mountain and tower in the background from our label.
Despite clearly being in the Santa Cruz Mountains, this area is not in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. When the original lines were drawn up in the 70’s, the people drawing the lines wanted to leave out a couple of low quality producers who were making wines in this area. They drew the line so that those wines could not say ‘Santa Cruz Mountains’, even though as you can see, this is area is by altitude, geography, geology and every other factor, except wine, part of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
This is another picture that should look just a little like our label.
This section of the mountains is where our Uvas Creek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from, as well as our new offering the Crimson Clover Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. Those wine carry the Santa Clara Valley AVA, even though they are not really in the valley section, they are in this strip of mountains.
This area is where Stefania and I want to eventually build our winery and plant our own vineyard. We want to be a little south of Calero in an area called Uvas Canyon. I’m not really worried about the AVA thing. We’ll likely just label the wine ‘Santa Clara County’ when the time comes, or maybe if I get the urge I’ll see if I can’t get this area it’s own AVA name. Maybe ‘Uvas Canyon’ would work.
The last picture is just a bit blurry but it gives you an idea how rugged this area can be. Nothing is really ‘flat’ for more than a couple acres, so any planting will have to be in small patches and work with the existing hills.
