Stopped in to rexford for a tasting. This is a really good SCM winery. It is a father and son…read morewinemaking team, and to hear them talk is informative and entertaining! I enjoyed all the wines I tasted here and will definitely return!

Rexford Winery easily has the best wine in Santa Cruz. I'd venture to say Rexford is top three in…read moreall of California for terroir focused, complex, full flavored, and fairly priced wines. We are shocked the secret's not out by now but the father and son duo at Rexford are true masters of the craft. White, red, rosé, and bubbly are crafted to perfection. They source from only the best growers and they absolutely pull every bit of complexity and flavor out of each varietal. In a market filled with noise and misdirection, Rexford delivers a pure reflection of what wine can be at its best and truest composition.

Let's talk about fate for a second. Sometimes places, people and/or things come into your life for…read morea reason bigger than you can initially see... for the time being, this place (Borland Campus in Scott's Valley) is serving my soul the cider of its dreams. Now, let's talk people- Ka'nete is a dime a dozen. His welcoming personality immediately drew us in and kept us there for longer than I should probably share. And now the thing... let's talk cider. Ka'nete's cider is everything a consumer could want in a cider- it's crisp, balanced, full of flavor and dry (but we like to say clean because it doesn't leave you with the feeling that tomorrows hangover is going to be bad). Ka'nete is a true craftsman and we cannot wait to see where Anzani takes him! If you can't make it to his tasting room hours, you can find his Strawberry Cider at Two Door in Scotts Valley! Cheers!

I had this cider at the Scotts Valley wine festival. I tried all of 3 flavors they had there that…read moreday & they are all were yumm but I couldn't get enough of the ginger. It's so crisp & tasty. I wound up getting more tickets for that ginger cider. It's the best I've ever had!! + I got a nice buzz. Can't wait to go to one of the tastings.

Kissed by an Angel is one of the most solid wineries in the Santa Cruz mountains AVA. They make a…read morelot of different varietals, and all of them are very good to excellent. The tasting room is super unique and often has live music in it, and is open later than other wineries so wine club members can enjoy it. If I lived closer to Kissed by an Angel, I would most likely join it. If you live close by, or you want to make the trek to Scotts valley more regularly, I would consider this a good pick for a winery to join.

Awesome ambience and wine of course. The new owners are as personable as the previous one!read more

I am in their wine club and it is a great deal. Super good wine. They source grapes from Santa Cruz…read morecounty and know where all the good grapes grow and how to make the best wine.

Great atmosphere, very friendly and nice people work there. We enjoyed a glass of wine and mulled…read morewine.

Such an amazing first experience place! We came to do the wine tasting for $20 per person and met…read moreMichelle who was helping us. Amazing choice selection, great explanation of all wines and homey ambiance. Would Take for a date or special night. Small and comforting vibes. Bring some snacks!!

2013: it was a different time in America. Barack Obama was barely into his second term after…read morewinning re-election the previous November, and Hills and Bills were picking out drapes for their planned triumphal return to residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (rumor had it that "Slick Willy" was also thinking about adding a convex mirror to the ceiling of the Lincoln bedroom, but maybe this was just "fake news"). How much things can change in six years. Except not atop Silver Mountain, that is. 2013 was just another year, one that blessedly was spared major earthquakes, wildfires, droughts, or damaging weather at harvest time. So, the grapes picked were good, and the winemaker was confident in his technique, and the results - while unknown at the time - would prove to be wonderful, indeed. Flash forward to November 2019. No Clintons in the White House, but there are great 2013 vintage wines available for tasting at the Silver Mountain Vineyards Westside tasting room. Estate Chardonnay from organic vines planted decades earlier using a highly prized Mount Eden clone; and a reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from a Grand Cru Classe vineyard, the fabled Bates Ranch, located on the Santa Clara County side of the Santa Cruz Mountains, close enough to Gilroy you'd swear there would be touches of garlic on the nose, but there isn't. Just rich, dark, brooding black fruit brimming over with brambles and flower scents and a minty touch of eucalyptus - not unlike Heitz Cellars' famous Martha's Vineyard Napa Valley Cabs, except at a mere fraction of the price (1/5th, more or less). Silver Mountain has a backstory like you wouldn't believe. Even I can't make this up. A WWII pilot who returns from combat saving America and much of the known world from fascism and Japanese imperial aggression who then makes a mint in the commodity futures trading business (which sounds scarier than flying an airplane in combat, if you ask me), and then promptly dumps a good amount of his personal fortune into rehabilitating an old apple orchard 2100 feet above the Pacific Ocean overlooking majestic Monterey Bay, high above the sleepy but quickly growing university/beach town of Santa Cruz. Years later, after rebuilding his home and winery following a major earthquake (1989's Loma Prieta), said vigneron eventually transfers some of the winemaking operations to an assistant, who was a Shakespearean actor from England who makes his own wines under the "Sonnet" label and who can quote from the Bard just as easily as he can craft a great bottle of single vineyard Pinot. At some point, this vigneron (let's call him "Jerold") decides to open a satellite tasting room on the Westside of Santa Cruz, as part of the so-called "Surf City Vintner's Collective," driven in part by the success of Randall Graham at Bonny Doon. That's where we end up, at the Westside tasting room, sipping 2013 vintages of organic estate Chardonnay and Bates Ranch Cabernet while Mark Knopfler songs echo from the stereo and a young toddler with his proud parents are quaffing Bottle Jack wines (the parents, not the toddler, you understand. We aren't all savages out here, you know!) across from the wine barrel table you're using to steady yourself as you finish off your 5th or 6th pour of Silver Mountain wine, and as someone in Washington, D.C. prepares to leak something to someone in the media about what some Ukrainian official promised to do for some sort of American shadow diplomatic fixer and go-between. Will a visit to Silver Mountain Vineyard's Westside tasting room solve all the world's problems? Will having a 2013 Bates Ranch Cabernet in your cellar for Thanksgiving help to drain the D.C. swamp? Or tear down walls? Or save American democracy? Maybe that's asking a lot of a single bottle of wine. Better buy a second bottle, then, just in case.

"Driving Miss Moblee," Act IV, Scene III (17/18)…read more [Steadicam tracking shot of E. and B. leaving the Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards tasting room with bottles of port and brandy in a wine carrying case. They stumble out onto the sidewalk, deposit the contents in the trunk of the Tesla, and then walk arm in arm on unsteady legs to the Bottle Jack Wines tasting room, shared with Silver Mountain Vineyards]. [The tasting room is filled to overflowing with festive, wine-themed Christmas decorations. "Late September" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjdWlvnnljk) plays on the stereo]. [The rain has stopped, so E. and B. sit down at an outdoor patio with open bottles of 2018 Sierra Foothills Viognier and 2014 Santa Cruz Mountains Petite Sirah. They pour the wines into Zalto wine glasses B. extracts from his soft-sided cooler, accompanied by El Salchichero bresaola served on Companion Bakery levain bread with fresh horseradish and drizzled with toasted sunflower oil and 12 year aged balsamic vinegar. B. then serves a Dungeness crab panini, cut in two, with melted Monterey Jack from Vella Cheese Co. (Sonoma, CA) to pair with the Viognier]. E: Why in the F-word haven't we covered Bottle Jack Wines in The Press yet? I really dig this Sierra Foothills Viognier, and the Petite is F-wording delicious! B: Well, when you assign someone who lives in the City to cover the dynamic local wine scene here, you tend to miss newer, audacious places like this. Not to mention old lions like Silver Mountain Vineyards, whose wines are classic examples of the potential of the area to make great Burgundian and Bordeaux style wines. Maybe you should hire a local, such as myself, who can give the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA the extensive coverage it deserves. [E. is about to speak but is interrupted by her iPhone 11 Pro vibrating]. E: Hello? What? As in, like, immediately? And what shall I tell him, then, when he asks me for an explanation why? And you need the Tesla back when? Tonight? Are you serious!? This is, like, so not right. You know, Eric at the Times would never stand for this. Even Dave at the Post would say no, and between you and me, that man is a F-wording IDIOT who doesn't know S-WORD about wine. Tell Audrey and her F-wording corporate SLAVEMASTERS they can come and try to take a bite out of my honey pot sweet C-WORD if they think that they can get me to fire my own goddamned driver and return that goddamned Tesla of theirs anytime soon, because I am a goddamned award winning wine critic who went to Smith F-WORDING College, and if they think they can mess with me, well you tell them from me that they can ram rolled up copies of the Chronicle covered in steaming HORSE S-WORD straight up their enormous, middle-aged A-wordholes. And then, they can set them on fire. Fine. Gotta go. You're welcome. Goodbye. Happy frickin' Holidays to you, too! [E. presses the end call button on her phone and sets it on the high-top table where she and B. are standing. She grabs the empty bottle of Viognier by the neck and proceeds to smash it into shards directly on top of the phone before then pouring a full glass of Petite Sirah on the table and then kicking it over. E. then picks up the damaged phone off the ground and hurls it against the wall, where it shatters to pieces]. B: So, that went well. E: B., you're fired. And we need to take the Tesla back to the dealership in Mountain View by 10 pm tonight or they'll fine me $500 a day until I do. Budget cuts ordered by Hearst corporate, effective immediately. I should sue those A-wordholes for workplace sexual harassment for every penny that they and their next of kin are worth. D-wordhead male executives and that spineless female editor ice queen in chief B-word who carries out their orders. Idiots! [E. locates the Petite Sirah bottle, now lying half empty on the ground, and takes a long pull]. E: Well, ya' can't be ma' driver no more, Boke, but that don't mean we can't steel be freens. [E. and B. both drop back fully into character for a moment]. B: Miss Moblee, no'ne at Hearst nah an' otha' place in dis' heah world can come b'tween us na'more. We haz a boooond that'l bend from time ta' time but will nevah break! I tells youz whot .. E: Ain't that the truth! Boke, I luvs ya', and that ain't the wine talkin' neithah! We is freens - fahevah! [E. and B. take turns killing the rest of the Petite left in the bottle]. E: Tell ya what, let's us grab a drink somewhere - a REAL drink mind ya' and not just some more of this heah wahn - and figa' out what we is gonna' do next. Whatcha say, Boke? B: I knowz jes' tha' place, Miss Moblee. Jes' tha' place ... [E. and B. walk grim-faced to the Tesla, to "Redemption Day" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHmVzQIZGiQ)]. [End of Act IV].

Nice little tasting room located in a warehouse plaza that we frequent (since we love the 11th hour…read morecoffee shop!) It's pretty basic, there's a couple seats inside and outside, no view of anything, but at least the chocolate/ice cream shop is right next door! It was $20 for a tasting and i got to choose my 4 wines. For not having a view, and the bartender not saying more than a sentence about each wine, it was little steep for the experience. Luckily, the fee is waived with just a one bottle purchase which I did get!

We had a lovely time at this spot. Good wine!…read more Friendly service- the gentleman there was so personable and helpful. Bathroom - single person bathroom in the back~ Decent parking in front and street parking around.

Cute winery and outdoor garden, nice staff, but terrible wines. $20 for 5 wines. None of us liked…read moreany of the wines. A couple tasted like they had already gone bad so we poured those out and we hardly ever waste alcohol. Outside food is allowed. Walked in on a Saturday afternoon and it was not busy at all

This place is great. They have some unique items, friendly staff, and good suggestions. I'm 42…read moreand one night the gal working said she thought I was in my 20s . So that right there was reason to go back lol . This week I picked up a festive gin and Spiced Pear liquor I'm super excited to try. I just moved to this neighborhood and I'm glad this place is so close.

Excellent, unpretentious service for fairly priced wines…read more After striking out online and at other stores, I went to Deer Park to find an organic red wine from Europe. They helped me find everything and taught me how to navigate the confusing world of European wine labeling. A lot of variety and good pricing. Will definitely return!