Jeff Emery adds a splash of color to the varietal landscape by using unique grapes such as Grenache sourced from inside and outside the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA.
Santa Cruz Mountains (AVA)
What Are They Growing in the Mountains?: An Interview with Jeff Emery
"I can see the need for sub-appellations within the Santa Cruz Mountains. Ben Lomond Mountain was set up many years ago and I thought that would be the start of many more such sub-appellations."
by
Laura Ness
October 3, 2006
Winemaker Jeff Emery was one of the youngest winemakers ever in the
Santa Cruz Mountains. Unlike most other vintners in the area who have made winemaking their second or third careers, this has been Jeff’s one and only. When he partnered with Ken Burnap back in the early 1980s to help make wines under the Santa Cruz Mountain Winery label, Jeff thought about little else but
Pinot Noir and maybe
Durif. Since he bought the rights to the
Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard name and its inventory a couple of years back, Jeff relocated to Boulder Creek, where he was busily crushing
Tempranillo, sourced from southern
Monterey County, when we spoke with him in early September.
Although he still thinks a great deal about Pinot, Jeff is enthusiastically working with a handful of other varieties that are doing well in this wide-ranging, and sometimes frustrating, grapegrowing region. We talked about what it’s like to be a part of this rather sprawling and diverse appellation, and what Emery is looking forward to crushing this fall.
Laura Ness (LN): What are the greatest challenges to wine grape growing in the Santa Cruz Mountains appellation?
