MJA Vineyards Wine and Tasting Room....I love you! I always…read morehave a wonderful time when I stop by, and I am always treated like family; Marin's energy and generous Aloha spirit make customers feel welcome. There are all kinds of varietals--seriously, there are so many to try! Plus, it is easy to leave having made new friendships. I also love being part of the wine club and the perks, and I have been a member for about ten years. The wine club member parties and movie nights are a great time. There is a wine for everyone. The Cabernets age very well. I just opened a 2013 Cab this week ("Still Horny" ????) that was awesome.

Stopped here for a wine tasting and had a nice experience. The tasting was $25 and focused mostly…read moreon whites. We tried Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, two different Sauvignon Blancs, and a Red Zinfandel. The wines were good and the staff provided great service throughout the tasting. The setting is relaxed and perfect if you're looking for a casual place to enjoy some wine while in Santa Cruz.

A tasting room with multiple bubbly flight options?! Yes please!…read more I knew Equinox had bubbles, but didn't know they also had a wine label and made still wines as well. They had 3 bubbly flights and 3 still wine flights to choose from, all of which offered 3 wines for a $20 tasting fee. They also offered a you pick 4 flight for $25. As a bubble lover, I of course had to go with one of the bubble flights. It was a tough decision between the sparkling white and rosé, but I ended up going with the white. Lucky for me, they also let me taste one of the sparkling rosés as well. I liked that they poured all 3 tastes at once so that I was able to compare each wine and ultimately end on my favorite of the pours. I think I typically prefer other methods than méthode champenoise for my bubbly, but it was still fun to try a variety of their offerings. They had a few different seating areas inside as well as some outdoor tables. We opted to sit inside at the bar so that we could chat with them a bit more about the wines. We were helped by Sue and one other tasting associate. Both were super nice, personable, and fun to chat with! Definitely worth the visit if you like sparkling wine!

Amazing sparkling wine, perfect for champagne, fans, wonderful service and staff and an excellent…read morepart of town where you can get some tacos or food from the restaurant next-door and sit outside and enjoy your tasting. I often bring my kids and staff is quite friendly, offering them a juice or animal crackers. Note they have a new URL the correct website is https://equinox-winery.obtainwine.com/collection/wines

Love this place. It's a great spot to just hang out, relax, and enjoy a glass of wine. We grabbed a…read moreglass of wine and a charcuterie board, then spent some time playing one of the games they had available (we ended up playing cards). Geeat service and the atmosphere is casual and welcoming, making it a great place to spend time with friends. Definitely a fun stop if you're wine tasting in Santa Cruz.

Back in August, I went on the O'Neill Sailboat cruise with some friends. Stockwell Cellars provided…read morethe wine. They gave everyone a 2 for 1 coupon for a tasting, some my husband, another couple, & I went this past Saturday. Ellio (sp?) assisted us. He was very kind and I liked all of the wine except for the 1st of 5 of the red choices. We ordered empanadas and the chicken was my favorite, but I also liked the beef. I would have given 5 stars, but they didn't check on us, not even once. Also, I had to ask for water for the table.

Such a cute little winery! I typically come to this area to visit MJA, but decided to branch out…read moreand give Sones a try. The staff member who welcomed us was very sweet and helped move our table so that we could sit in the sun. The space is very small but charming (and dog-friendly), with little hedgehog decorations everywhere. We asked to do a tasting and were given five carafes to share amongst the three of us. The white wines were both excellent, but I particularly enjoyed the Zinfandel. Would return!

Staff was super friendly and inviting. Wine was ok but it was very cool how they serve it. Also…read morethey have 3 wines that they make small production of and when you buy them they give you refillable wine bottles. You can come back and buy more wine bring your bottle and just have it filled up. All in all great experience.

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 quick stop at Bottle Jack wines before needing to rush off for dinner reservations,…read morehowever their wines were pretty nice. They do have a dessert wine but I you have to show up at a special tasting night to try it, which was too bad because I usually purchase the ports.

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

This winery was a real find. Not only California wines but Spanish and Portuguese as well. Each one…read morethat we tasted was as good as the first. Elaine was a delight. She asked us the right questions in order to help us pick the right flight. She did well. She is a real asset. We will visit again.

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.

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.

If you're downtown and want some wine this is the place to go. They have something for everyone…read more Today they had 3 different flights (2 were $15 and 1 was $20). There was a flight of 3 whites, one that had 2 whites and a light red, and a third that had all reds. The wines are from varying vineyards and represent regions from all over California. I had the monster mash wines that were a few different blends. They were bold, earthy, and super tasty! The service was fast, knowledgeable, and let you enjoy the wines without being overly pushy. It was dog friendly inside which was perfect for a chilly November night. They also had some wines in cans to go!

Absolutely lovely wine bar in downtown Santa Cruz. The vibes were immaculate, and the wine was…read morequite good, too. It's a cozy inside, but they have outdoor seating too. It's a dog friendly bar, and the owner was very kind and explained a lot about the wines. Would for sure come back!

I love wine walks. They're like drinking with a mission--way more exciting than just sitting in a…read moretasting room. Instead of casually ordering from one location, you're handed a map, transforming the experience into a wine-themed scavenger hunt. It's like Where's Wino? But rather than simply being served, you might have to chat with someone, where you can either pretend to know things about wine ("Mmm, this one's red!" or "Ah, it has...grape notes") or really take the conversation off-road, diving into deep topics like their grandparents, tattoos, skincare, pets --it helps if your mind is like magnetic poetry-- as I print the email addresses of my co-workers on their mailing lists. (Enjoy the biweekly 10% off tasting coupons, Mr. Green.) Plus, each stop brings a fresh vibe. You're not stuck in one place. Each store is an Easter egg hunt for snacks as you sip among quirky socks, pet sweaters, and art that could double as motel bedspreads. Plus, you get your steps in. And, the event is on a three-hour timer if you want to catch every last drop of chardogrigio (I never rinse my glass), adding a sense of ticking-clock urgency to the fun. Compared to other wine walks, this one had only 12 locations, far less than half of what is offering from Los Gatos (my favorite), Campbell, Saratoga, and Willow Glen, so you may have to put on fake mustaches and hats to make some unsanctioned return stops.