Wine Asylum

Posted by mkuller (A) on September 10, 2009 at 10:52:36

In Reply to: RE: Funny you should mention Ridge... posted by jimbill on September 10, 2009 at 10:36:57

...there are now tasting rooms for 5 or 6 wineries off of Mission (hiway 1) on Swift St. (on the west side of town) including Bonny Doon which has a nice restaraunt in their tasting room.

Pelican Ranch there has a nice inexpensive chardonnay.

Much easier tasting here than driving around in the mountains. We have a weekend place on that side of town.

There is also a terrific wine bar/restaraunt in downtown Santa Cruz -Soif - and another one upstairs on the Municipal Wharf next to the Boardwalk.

We did a "Day in the Vinyards" at Ridge maybe 10 or 15 years ago. Spent about an hour cutting grapes off of the vines, then retired to an outdoor picnic lunch with all the wine we could drink. Their Lytton Springs zin is one of my favorites.

Another one whose wine I've been impressed with in the past is Soquel Vineyards, just south of Santa Cruz on your way to Carmel.

Weekend of Sept. 12-13 is the Capitola Art and Wine Festival, just a little further south.

There is an Armida Winery tasting room in downtown Capitola, which is worth a walk around.