Salamandre Wine Cellars

About the winery

Salamandre Wine Cellars was a small family winery in a redwood canyon in Aptos, about two miles from the beach⁴. Wells Shoemaker, a pediatrician, and his wife Sandie began making wine as a hobby in 1978 and bonded the winery in 1985, with partners Dave and Mary South¹. Wells made the wines⁴, and he wrote about wine and health too: he was a co-author of The French Paradox and Beyond (1992)^2,5.

The first wines were Chardonnays, from small Santa Cruz Mountains vineyards and from the Arroyo Seco Vineyard in Monterey County⁴. Merlot, Pinot Noir and Syrah followed, and from 1996 a Primitivo, the Syrah and Primitivo both from the Los Lobos Vineyard in southern Monterey County^4,7. The salamander on the label is the Santa Cruz long-toed salamander, found in Aptos; Shoemaker dug the cellar by hand, partly to spare the salamanders living there⁶.

Salamandre never had a public tasting room. Visitors came to invitational tastings in the cellar, which was carved into the hillside next to the Shoemakers' home⁸. Wells Shoemaker's seasonal newsletters, full of backpacking trips, harvest news and new releases, filled the winery's pages on the original Web Winery and make up most of its archive.

Recipes from Salamandre

• Side dish

  Acme Stuffed Potatoes

  First shared on Web Winery in 2001.

• Main course

  Cajun Style Red Beans and Linguica

  First shared on Web Winery in 2001.

• Main course

  Chardonnay Poached Brook Trout

  First shared on Web Winery in 2002.

• Soup or stew

  Gnarly Barley Stew

  First shared on Web Winery in 2003.

• Pasta

  Pasta Don Carlos

  First shared on Web Winery in 2001.

• Pasta

  Pasta Puttanesca

  First shared on Web Winery in 2001.

All 8 recipes from Salamandre

Nearby in Santa Cruz Mountains

• Aptos Vineyard AptosOpen
• TGTrout Gulch Vineyards AptosNo longer trading
• Bargetto Winery SoquelOpen
• Burrell School Vineyards & Winery Los GatosOpen