5 Best Santa Cruz Wineries

With the summer months upon us and the mercury in our thermometers rising, there's nothing better than a day trip around Santa Cruz to enjoy the sun with a glass of wine from one of the many incredible wineries in the area. 

While the region is smaller than other, better known areas (1,600 acres as opposed to Napa Valley's nearly 50,000), the unique climate, rich soil and ideal geography of the area make these wines one of California's best kept secrets.

To get you started, we've come up with a list of our 5 favourite wineries in the Santa Cruz area. 

Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards

Location: 334 Ingalls Street Suite A, Santa Cruz

Located just southwest of Downtown Santa Cruz, this vineyard has been producing top quality bottles of wine for nearly 50 years, since they opened in 1975. 

Specializing in Portuguese and Spanish wines, Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards employs knowledgable staff to help guide you along the experience of trying their many delicious choices.

Storrs Winery

Location: 303 Potrero Street #35, Santa Cruz

Organic, sustainable, wildlife-friendly — these are just a few of the adjectives to describe the incredible wine created by Stephen Storrs and Pamela Bianchini-Storrs of the Storrs Winery.

These wines are also rich, balanced and made with care, but Stephen and Pamela have some partners to help them out with that. A small flock of sheep live amongst their vines, contributing to biodiversity in the soil and weed control.

Birichino Winery Tasting Room

Location: 204 Church Street, Santa Cruz

With an eye towards creating a perfectly balanced wine no matter where they are, Alex Krause and John Locke have spent decades making wine not just in California, but places like France and Italy as well. 

Using plenty of old vines and new vines, Birichino approaches wine with out of the box thinking, including techniques like racking the wine (moving from one vessel to another during the winemaking process) as little as possible, avoiding filtration when they can, and using stainless or neutral barrels. 

Sones Cellars

Location: 334B Ingalls Street, Santa Cruz

This gorgeous tasting room is vivacious, with plenty of plant life and art work to facilitate meaningful conversations among friends, old and new. And it doesn't hurt to have great wine around to help with that as well!

Having started in 2003, Sones Cellars has nearly two decades of experience learning how best to pull the unique flavours of this region of California into some of the most complex yet well balanced wines in the area. 

Bottle Jack Winery

Location: 1088 La Madrona Drive, Santa Cruz

What's better than wine and incredible views? This family run winery is in a prime location amongst plenty of redwood trees and looking out over the ocean. There's no better way to spend a sunny Santa Cruz afternoon!

Created for aficionados and sommeliers-to-be alike, Bottle Jack Winery provides expertly crafted wines with scenery to match.

Are you looking to live amidst all these great options for wineries? Contact Lauren Spencer today! She's your inside track for the best deals and happenings in Santa Cruz real estate.