Santa Cruz Mountains

The Ridge Vineyards tasting room at Monte Bello is home to one of America’s most iconic wines. Photo courtesy of Ridge Vineyards

Guides   Santa Cruz Mountains   San Francisco

How to Spend a Sublime 72 Hours in the Santa Cruz Mountains

By , a Bay Area-based freelance journalist who covers food, wine, travel, and culture. A former editor at Hemispheres, he has written for Condé Nast Traveler, Wine Enthusiast, Eater, Afar, and the Los Angeles Times.

The Santa Cruz Mountains might not be as famous as Napa, but you could argue that no better encapsulates the feeling of California than this one. The rugged mountain range runs from the San Francisco Peninsula to the top of the Salinas Valley on the Central Coast, dividing the beaches of Santa Cruz County from Silicon Valley and the broader Bay Area. There’s fog from the Pacific Ocean, forests dense with soaring redwoods, soil that has been upheaved and rearranged for millennia by the instability of the San Andreas Fault.

The richness of this environment results in an extraordinary range of terroirs. On the warmer east side, where the drier, scragglier oak and manzanita woods house wineries looking down on the Santa Clara Valley, vintners can produce stunningly complex cabernet and its ilk, including the highly sought-after Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello bottling. Cross over the summit to the west slope, and suddenly you (and the vines) are bathed in fog, in the shade of redwoods. These cooler sites are ideal for pinot noir and chardonnay, both of which have a legacy here that extends back more than a century.

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Indeed, these mountains have a long history to draw upon—one that long predates the appellation’s 1981 creation. A physician named Osea Perrone planted the Cupertino property that would become Ridge Monte Bello all the way back in 1885; not long after, Paul Masson brought pinot noir and chardonnay cuttings from his native Burgundy, believing that this was the place to make the finest sparkling wine in America. Masson founded the La Cresta estate, establishing the mountains as prime territory for cool-climate winegrowing, a legacy that a former stockbroker named Martin Ray would carry on at what would become Mount Eden Vineyards. The iconoclastic nature of the area, where the hippies ruled (Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters held their acid tests in the mountain town of La Honda) and the information age was born (back when tech pioneers worked in garages, not billion-dollar compounds), drew experimental, do-it-yourself types like Randall Grahm, who came to fame producing Rhône-style wines at Bonny Doon Vineyard.

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Wineries and Restaurants Around Santa Cruz

A down-to-earth, go-your-own-way ethos still pervades the place, with the tasting rooms at even the most acclaimed wineries laid-back and uncrowded. This is surely in part because of the isolated nature of the mountain properties. Ridge and Mount Eden are maybe two miles from each other as the crow flies, but navigating the winding mountain roads from one to the other takes a good 45 minutes. (And, after you’ve maneuvered through a couple of switchbacks, using those spit buckets will feel even more sensible.) Some tasting rooms are only open during the week, others only on the weekend, so plan ahead.

The good news: While the Santa Cruz Mountains feel worlds away, they’re actually quite close to civilization. Los Gatos, a restaurant-filled San Jose suburb in the eastern foothills, is only about an hour’s drive from San Francisco or Oakland, and downtown Santa Cruz is just half an hour further (if you avoid weekend beach traffic). You can hit a couple of wineries on a day trip from the city, or book yourself a beachside stay and enjoy the best of California: relaxed decks and patios, paroramic views and idyllic forests, modest tasting fees and chill vibes, and, of course, exceptional wines.

Day 1: The Silicon Valley Side

Photo courtesy of Ridge Vineyards

Ridge Vineyards Cupertino

Taste One of the World’s Great Wines

Start your journey at the Mountains’ most famous winery. The Ridge Monte Bello property was first planted in the 1880s, and the winery had a steady following by the 1970s, but Paul Draper’s flagship Monte Bello wine as since become one of the iconic American cabernets. Reaching the winery requires driving up a narrow, winding road into the hills above Cupertino — watch out for cyclists — but upon arriving you’ll discover one of the most quintessentially Californian properties you’ll encounter anywhere. You can taste a wide variety of wines from this estate and other vineyards around Northern California (Ridge makes great zinfandels from its holdings in Sonoma), and while the standard tastings do not include a pour of Monte Bello, you can get one for an additional $40. Trust us when we say, it’s worth it.

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Other options nearby: Located a little further along the same ridgeline as, well, Ridge, Vidovich Vineyards, has been making cabernet sauvignon for nearly 30 years. Fans of Burgundian wines, meanwhile can head up the peninsula to Woodside and the 45-year-old Thomas Fogarty Winery, which is tucked on an estate amid heritage oak and fir forest on Skyline Boulevard.

Testarossa Los Gatos

Lunch, With a Side of History

You’ll have to navigate down the hill for lunch, but you can keep the historic winery theme going at Testarossa, whose on-site restaurant, 107 Bistro & Wine Bar, occupies the stone cellar of the 19th-century Novitiate Winery, one of the oldest in the state. The menu ranges from black garlic shrimp and king salmon al pastor tacos to pizzas and steak frites, along with a variety of Testarossa pinot noirs and chardonnays.

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Other options nearby: Testarossa only has lunch service on the weekend, so if you’re here during the week (or just in the mood for pasta) check out The Pastaria, a beloved Italian market and restaurant in charming downtown Los Gatos.

Mount Eden Vineyards Saratoga

The Other Half of History

You’re getting back in the car for another 45 minutes, up a road that’s perhaps even more daunting than the one to Ridge—the last mile is unpaved—but at the top is one of California’s true landmarks. In the 1940s, Martin Ray planted what would become Mount Eden, building on his work with Paul Masson and using cuttings from Masson’s vines. Today that genetic material is known as the Mount Eden clone, which is found throughout the state. If you find that sort of nerdy factoid exciting, this is the place for you. Tasting sessions of the estate pinot noir, chardonnay, and cabernet here are held on a quiet deck and are imbued with a deep level of storytelling, made all the more contemplative by a view that looks out over the vineyards and the entire Santa Clara Valley.

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Other options nearby: Mount Eden is open only during the week, so if you’re tasting on the weekend, opt for its nearby sister property, Domaine Eden. If Mount Eden is serious, the vibe on the patio here is a bit more jovial, but both the wines and views remain well worth the trip.

Vicinity Los Gatos

A Top-Flight Tasting Menu

The team behind the Los Gatos wine bar and bistro Tasting House inaugurated this speakeasy-style, fine-dining restaurant this past winter, and within months Vicinity had earned a Michelin nod. Across 13 courses, executive chef Julian Silvera explores California’s landscapes, with more than 90 percent of ingredients coming from nearby producers.A course titled Pillar Point, for instance, features a “tide pool” of Monterey squid, Fort Bragg uni, spot prawn, mussels, and seaweed alongside a beach of miso “sand.” The luxurious space has just 16 seats, so be sure to reserve well in advance.

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Other options: For a more casual bite just a couple of blocks down from Vicinity, Oak & Rye does standout wood-fired pizzas and Italian-influenced pub grub, along with well-made cocktails and a nice selection of local beers.

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