Mountain Vines, Mountain WinesWritten by Casey Young 
Photographs by Ken Dawes
Published by Mountain Vines Publishing, 2003
The Santa Cruz Mountain appellation produces some of California’s best wine, yet it remains relatively anonymous. “Mountain Vines, Mountain Wines” may go a long way toward remedying that situation.
Casey Young’s text provides a clear picture of the region’s geography and its long history of wine grape cultivation, dating back to the efforts of Franciscan missionaries 200 years ago. This was the land of French-born pioneers of the California industy Charles LeFranc and Paul Masson in the latter part of the 19th Century. For much of the middle of the 20th Century it was iconoclast Martin Ray who upheld the banner of Santa Cruz Mountain-grown wines. By the 1960’s Dr. David Bruce was making wine under his own name and Ridge Vineyards was established with Paul Draper assuming winemaking chores at the end of that decade. Both Bruce and Draper remain very significant players today, but they’ve been joined by many others now making wine here.
Roughly fifty wineries are currently operating in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Young has profiled all of them. Most are small and some may be as much hobby as business for their operators. There are no Gallos or Beringer-Blasses in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but some of its wineries are larger than most wine fans might suspect (Ridge has an annual production of 70,000 cases and Bonny Doon does about a quarter of a million cases each year).
“Mountain Vines, Mountain Wines” provides essential information on each winery—location, varieties made, days of operation, etc. Also included is the web address of nearly every one of the 50. Artisan winemakers seldom lack for personality and the author has done an admirable job in bringing those personalities to the reader. It’s not easy to avoid repetition in doing so many one and two-page profiles, but Young accomplishes the task.
Ken Dawes gives a window on those personalities with his shots of the winery principals. His outdoor photography illustrates the natural beauty of the area. Grape clusters, gnarled old vines, morning mist over steep hillsides—the vineyards of the Santa Cruz Mountains may not be that many miles from the urban sprawl of the San Francisco Bay Area, but they’re a world away.
--reviewed by Dan Clarke