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.
3 comments:
The weekend sure was great for Bay Area hiking, alright! I toasted friends with a chilled Viognier upon finishing a 6-mile hike over at Sunol Regional Wilderness.
It's nice to discover you folks. Cheers!
There are a bunch of great hikes near our winery. Wunderlich, Huddart, La Honda, Windy Hill, Skyline and Russian Hill are all within a couple miles of the winery.
At Cooper Garrod you can actually hike through the vineyards into the trails at Fremont Older. There is a gate but the family always has it open to access the park.
At Picchetti there is a short 1 mile trail called the Zinfandel trail that connects to a longer trail in Stevens Creek Park.
Those are some of my favorite 'wine hikes'.
Mine too, Paul! :)
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