VASCM: SCM/CC appellations

Rfalfaro at aol.com Rfalfaro at aol.com
Thu Dec 15 14:18:52 PST 2011 

Yo winegrowers and winemakers,
 
I see no downside to be included in the Central Coast AVA. I see  
opportunity to increase the quality of SCM wines by having another option with  wine 
we do not want to put in our SCM labeled wine. I would much prefer to use  
the CC AVA than the California designation.
 
Napa and Sonoma are part of the North Coast AVA. No one I know that grows  
grapes in those areas have any issues with being included in the larger 
North  Coast AVA.
 
Count me in.
 
 
Richard  Alfaro
Alfaro Family Vineyard
420 Hames Road 
Corralitos, CA  95076
831-728-5172

 
 
In a message dated 12/14/2011 7:55:26 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
mmartella at msn.com writes:

John and  fellow Santa Cruz Winegrowers,
I, like several of you, was around in  1984-85 when the subject of excluding
the SCM from what was then the  proposed Central Coast AVA was first
discussed. I believe the charge to  exclude the SCM was lead by Ridge's Paul
Draper.  While I did not  express it at the time I felt that excluding the
SCM from the Central Coast  might not be the best approach.

It now been over 25 years and it is my  observation that the down side of
being excluded from the Central Coast out  weighs any realized up-side.

I do generally agree with Josh Beck and as  it was express by Paul Draper at
the time, an AVA should be based on  similarities in terroir. And again I
agree with Josh Beck observation that  the Santa Cruz Mountains is already a
pretty large and quite diverse  AVA.  Similarity in terroir is always only a
matter of degree, and no  one is suggesting increasing the size of our AVA.
If we were just using  'similarities in terroir' as the only criteria a good
argument could be  made that we should make the SCM AVA smaller.  Like the
formation of  every AVA, politics has played a role in designing the  AVA
boundaries.   There are vineyards in the SCM that have more  in common with
vineyards in the Central Coast then they have in common with  our vineyard 
on
northern Skyline.  The fact is; the Santa Cruz  Mountains is in the
geographical Central Coast of California.  We  might be more in the Central
Coast of California than parts Central Coast  AVA.  

We have had 25 years of being separate from the Central  Coast and just 
about
every published wine map includes SCM in the Central  Coast.  During these 
25
years, I've met few a wine writers, wine  buyers, and and/or wine
professionals who knew before hand that the Santa  Cruz Mountains is not 
part
of the Central Coast.  More importantly,  I've never talked to any of them
who were impressed with the fact that we  are not in the Central Coast AVA.
In my humble opinion, outside of our own  little group, NO ONE CARES.  It is
not important.  What's  important is the quality of the wines we make.  
Being
in the Santa  Cruz Mountains is the foundation of our wines.  That is not
going to  change.  Being included in the Central Coast AVA will not  reduce
people's perception of our wines.  Nor will it cause us to  start making
inferior wine.  Quite the contrary, being included in the  Central Coast 
will
generally raise the over all quality of the wines being  made in the Santa
Cruz Mountains.  The over all quality will increase  because it will reduce
the pressure on some wineries to bottle an inferior  lot of wine as Santa
Cruz Mountains by allowing them to market the wine in  bottles or in bulk as
Central Coast. 

John, I'll be one of few good  hearty people to join you on a committee.


Michael

______
Michael Martella  
ThomasFogartyWinery.com
MartellaWines.com
(650) 851-6777
17287  Skyline Blvd.
Woodside, CA 94062


-----Original  Message-----
From: vascm-bounces at kkn.net [mailto:vascm-bounces at kkn.net] On  Behalf Of
Cliff Gardner
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 1:29  PM
To: John Bargetto
Cc: Santacruzmountains winegrowers (vascm at kkn.net);  Santacruzmountains
winegrowers  (santacruzmountains at yahoogroups.com)
Subject: Re: VASCM: SCM/CC  appellations

Hi all,

Since moving to the Sierra Foothills, we  have been inactive in the 
association, but I still receive emails.  I  may have no business 
getting involved, but I would like to point out to  you all that the 
more AVAs you are in the more flexibility you have.   If you become part 
of the the Central Coast AVA, you can till maintain the  Santa Cruz AVA 
designation and make it stronger.  You are already in  the California 
AVA, which allows  you to label wines made from grapes  grown in 
California but outside of the Santa Cruz Mtn AVA, as California  AVA.  
If you become part of the Central Coast AVA, you will have a  third 
option to label wines made from grapes grown in said area, and label  
them Central Coast AVA, which I believe has a better name than the  
California AVA; and make the wines more salable and salable at a higher  
price.

Within the Napa AVA there are 20 to 30 AVAs, (ie Spring  Mountain, 
Rutherford Bench, Howell Mountain, Stags Leap), the same goes  for the 
Sonoma AVA.  Hope my input helps!

Cliff  Gardner

On Dec 13, 2011, at 2:08 PM, John Bargetto wrote:

>  Dear local winegrowers/winemakers
>
> At the SCMVA meeting last  week, I presented a proposal that calls for 
> the Central Coast vit  area to include the SCM.  Presently they are 
> separate  areas.
>
> This would be a long term process (think years) of  building consensus 
> and then applying to TTB
>
> The  enclosed doc fleshes out the reasoning.
>
> I am looking for a few  good hearty people to join me on a committee to 
> further explore this  concept.
>
> If you are interested and/or want to give feedback at  this early 
> stage, please feel free.
>
> Best wishes for  the Holiday season,
>
> John
>
> John E.  Bargetto
> Director of Winemaking
> Bargetto Winery
>  831.475.2258 Ext.17
> jbargetto at bargetto.com
>
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