High in the Santa Cruz Mountains, with views to Monterey Bay is the Loma Prieta Winery. It was a clear weekend day when Spaswinefood visited this Santa Cruz Mountains boutique winery. What we discovered is that it is hard to beat the spectacular view from this winery at 2300 feet elevation. The Loma Prieta Winery is a young winery located
in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. When we visited we were told that the vineyard at Loma
Prieta Winery’s has only existed for nine years and their tasting room
for four years. However, despite its youth the winery is producing award winning wines. For some background and history on this winery read Prince of Pinot's description.
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| View to Monterey Bay from Loma Prieta Winery © Spaswinefood |
Loma Prieta Winery specializes in small case lot wines. Some of the grapes used to make their wines are grown on the estate, with others coming from vineyards, such as the Amorosa Vineyard, Lodi. One of the first things I noticed about their wines was their colorful wine label, which was designed by New Orleans artist Martin LaBorde.
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| Tasting Room at Loma Prieta Winery © Spaswinefood |
Tasting Loma Prieta Wines
When we visited the tasting room we tasted wines from their tasting list. Here are the wines I tasted:
White Wines
Viognier 2010: Their Viognier 2010 was amazing. In fact it won a Gold at 2010 Sommelier Challenge International Wine Competition and a Silver at 2010 American Wine Society Commercial Wine Competition. See
Josie Crowden's description of this wine.
Red Wines
Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains 2008: This Pinot Noir hit high marks, given it won a Gold Medal 2010 at Finger Lakes International Wine Competition; Silver medals at 2009 American Wine Society Commercial Wine Competition and 2010 San Francisco Wine Competition.
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| Loma Prieta Winery Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains 2008 © Spaswinefood |
Merlot 2007: Their Merlot 2007 has won Silver Medals at the 2011 Finger Lakes International Wine Competition and the Riverside International Wine Competition. I liked the overall quality of this wine.
Estate Pinotage 2011: Their Estate Pinotage, Santa Cruz Mountains 2011 was a special treat. In fact it rather exciting to find Pinotage wines at a Santa Cruz Mountain winery.
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| Loma Prieta Winery Estate Pinotage, Santa Cruz Mountains 2011 © Spaswinefood |
Pinotage, Amorosa Vineyard 2009:
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| Loma Prieta Winery Pinotage, Amorosa Vineyard Lodi 2009 © Spaswinefood |
This was an exciting Pinotage. In fact the Pinotage, Amorosa Vineyard 2009 won a Platinum Medal at the 2011 Sommelier Challenge International Wine Competition, Double Gold and Best of Class at the 2011 Indy Wine Competition, Double Gold and Best of Class at the 2011 California State Fair Commerical Wine Competition; and Gold Medals at the 2011 Winemakers Challenge and the Riverside International Wine Competition. For a description of this wine see
Josie Cowden's review.
In addition to the above wines, we also tasted their Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, Estate Pinot Noir 2008 (Gold/Best of Class) and Petit Syrah 2009 (Gold). It is without doubt that we enjoyed tasting their award wining wines. I especially liked their Pinotage and Pinot Noir wines. You will find reviews for some of their wines on Snooth.
We found the winery to be very inviting. Reviews from winery visitors can be found at gogobot, Tripadvisor and Yelp.
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| Vineyard with a View, Loma Prieta Winery © Spaswinefood |
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| Taking in the View at Loma Prieta Winery © Spaswinefood |
It was very special sitting there on the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains on a beautiful day with a spectacular view, all the way to the ocean. Unfortunately, all too soon we were heading back down. Please check the hours the winery is open before planning a visit. At time of this blog post the Loma Prieta Winery is listed as only being open on Saturdays and Sundays.
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| Leaving Loma Prieta Winery © Spaswinefood |
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| Leaving Loma Prieta Winery © Spaswinefood |
You will find more on my travels in California and elsewhere at Spaswinefood.
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