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When I drive over to the Monterey Peninsula, I think first of Carmel, Pebble Beach, Seventeen Mile Drive, the Monterey Wharf, and good food. But many people head to Monterey for the wine.
Monterey Wine Country boasts over 175 unique vineyards, most of which are in a 90-mile-long valley, with only eight primary viticulture soil types. Today’s growers use innovative techniques to preserve the land for future generations while producing the highest quality grapes, 42 varietals go into the area’s wines.
The more southern Santa Cruz Mountains Appellation is home to more than 70 wineries, 200 small vineyards and 1,500 acres of wine grapes. As part of the historic Santa Clara Valley wine-growing region, Gilroy is home to a number of award-winning local wineries that offer tastings and tours in a casual, relaxing environment. The town of Carmel by the Sea has a “Wine Walk Passport” that includes a tasting at 9 of the town’s 14 tasting rooms, a perfect way to sample the region’s wine.
Our story began over two hundred and fifty years ago at the Spanish mission of Soledad, where Franciscan friars planted the first crop of wine grapes. Since then, the area
has blossomed into approximately 40,000 acres of vineyards. Still, it was not until the early 1960’s that Monterey County received the recognition it deserves as a wine-producing region with a climate comparable to esteemed areas like Napa, Sonoma, Burgundy, and Bordeaux. Over the years, as the demand for table wines rose, Monterey County rose to the occasion to satisfy it by establishing multitudes of new vineyards and wineries. Eventually, this solidified its reputation as one of California’s key premium grape-growing regions, worth over $200 million.
Granted an AVA in 1983, Monterey now has a total of 40,000 acres (16,200 hectares) planted to grapevines. The valley floor is in classic Californian style, flat and several miles wide creating ideal
topography for grapevines. It runs between the Gabilan Mountains and the Sierra de Salinas acting as a natural funnel, drawing cool air inland from the coast.
Fog and cool breezes are a vital part of the Monterey terroir, just as they are further north in Napa and Sonoma valleys. As the largest of all of the AVAs, the region is home to considerable variations in microclimates and soil types. Dominate soil types are loam based.
In areas closer to the cold Pacific Ocean,
Pinot Noir,
Riesling and
Chardonnay are the predominant varieties, while warmer pockets further south have more plantings of
Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot,
Syrah and
Zinfandel. Chardonnay is the predominate variety of the region composing approximately 50 percent of the vines in production.
Chalone Vineyard was first planted in 1919 and the brand began in 1960. The land is on a high-elevation (1800’) mountain plateau, the Gavilan Mountain Range, in Monterey County, at the base of an extinct volcano next to the Pinnacles National Monument. 250 acres of vineyards sit on the 950-acre property. Soils are decomposed granite and limestone, and the broad diurnal temperature shifts result in wines with minerality, bright acidity and optimal balance between fruit, acid, and alcohol. In fact, the dry, arid area lured wine icon Dick Graff to the region decades ago – he wanted to make premium Burgundian-styled Chardonnay and felt that the region had the perfect conditions with which to do so. By 1976, at the Judgement of Paris, Chalone’s 1974 Chardonnay placed 3rd among some of California’s and France’s best wines.
Take an afternoon off from golf, and see what Monterey offers in wine!
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