Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard

About the winery

Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard was started by Ken Burnap, who ran a contracting firm and The Hobbit restaurant in Orange County and had set out to find the right place in California for Pinot Noir³. In 1974 he bought a vineyard on Jarvis Road in the Vine Hill district of Santa Cruz, in grapes since 1863 and newly replanted to Pinot Noir by David Bruce³. The first release was the 1975 Pinot Noir².

Jeff Emery started at the winery as a part-time cellar hand while studying at UC Santa Cruz; the winery gives 1979^2,5, while a 2018 Chronicle profile gives 1977⁴. He became Burnap's co-winemaker and had taken over the business and the winemaking by the time Burnap retired in 2002^2,4; the Chronicle says he bought the business from Burnap in 2004⁴. In the late 1990s the winery made about 2,500 cases a year in a four-level gravity-flow cellar on the estate, with the caps punched down by hand and the Pinot Noir fermented with native yeast^5,6.

In 2004 Burnap sold the Jarvis Road vineyard, and the winemaking moved with Emery into the city of Santa Cruz². The tasting room, the winery's first, is on the West Side near Natural Bridges^2,1. In 2008 the winery started a second label, Quinta Cruz, for grape varieties from Spain and Portugal such as Tempranillo and Touriga Nacional².

In the press

• Houston Chronicle, July 10, 1996, “Wine of the week”, by Michael Lonsford

  Press archive entry Wayback Machine copy

• Mead On Wine, July 21, 1996, “Santa Cruz Eccentric”, by Jerry D. Mead

  Press archive entry Wayback Machine copy

• Mead On Wine, February 1999, “Santa Cruz Update”, by Jerry D. Mead

  Press archive entry Wayback Machine copy

Nearby in Santa Cruz Mountains

• Aptos Vineyard AptosOpen
• Bargetto Winery SoquelOpen
• Burrell School Vineyards & Winery Los GatosOpen
• BByington Vineyard & Winery Los GatosOpen