Style Wine Alongside the San Andreas Fault Line

There’s not a lot better in life, so far as I’ve found, than sitting outdoors on a deck over the water at one of many renovated fishermen’s shacks at Nick’s Cove, an inn and restaurant on Northern California’s Tomales Bay, significantly proper because the solar is setting, with a glass of rosé and a dozen uncooked oysters. The view over the bay turns golden, with darkness simply starting to the touch the hills throughout the water, and all you hear is the sunshine slapping of waves in opposition to the piers under you.

The place is so peaceable that you just’d hardly guess that the San Andreas Fault, that tumultuous collision of two huge tectonic plates, runs instantly below the water in entrance of you. It bisects Tomales Bay, miles under the floor. Have one other oyster, one other sip of rosé. Then head to the restaurant, as I did, and order a few of Nick’s Cove’s glorious cioppino — the signature seafood stew of San Francisco, as widespread now because it was again in 1906, when the San Andreas roughly flattened your complete metropolis.

The San Andreas has been liable for earthquakes (somewhat too typically) and strings of erupting volcanoes (within the very distant previous), but in addition in some ways it has fashioned the distinctive character of a few of California’s finest wine areas (to not point out your complete California coast). That affect is why I’d determined to take a highway journey down portion of its size. We have a tendency to consider wine journey as heading to a area — the Napa Valley, Tuscany, Bordeaux — and staying put there. However I’d began to surprise if it is likely to be much more attention-grabbing to comply with a unique sort of itinerary. Why not dive into historical past and geology and construct a visit visiting wineries alongside the San Andreas? 

The Sonoma coast

I began off my journey on the Harbor Home Inn, in Elk, the place 2019 F&W Greatest New Chef Matthew Kammerer works magic with hyperlocal substances in a redwood house initially in-built 1916 for a timber firm. Harbor Home is instantly on the coast, and from the inn’s deck, you’ll be able to look out to the place the San Andreas runs below the water. (It comes onto land a couple of miles south, close to Level Area.) Kammerer harvests seaweed offshore for a few of his dishes, however most of his produce comes from a small farm that he purchased proper on the fault line.

“It’s all basalt up at Harbor Home,” he advised me after I took a go to there, “however right here, it’s sandy loam, with this wealthy black soil on prime — for farming, that’s ideally suited. I name it carrot soil. The carrots develop good and straight all the way in which down.”

After waking up the subsequent morning to a breakfast of Kammerer’s shirred eggs and foraged mushrooms, I headed south, slicing inland off Freeway 1 close to The Sea Ranch towards Peay Vineyards. I adopted the twists and turns of Annapolis Street by means of evergreen forests for a number of miles, and at one level I crossed a small bridge over the dry and not-very-mighty Gualala River: At that time, Andy Peay had advised me, I’d be instantly above the San Andreas.

I obtained out and walked over to the center of the bridge, seemed up and down the scruffy, tree-bordered riverbed, and thought, principally, that for such a mind-blowing geological characteristic, this view was fairly unimpressive. I used to be standing in the midst of the highway on a bridge, occupied with rocks.

In my protection, in the event you care about wine, you actually ought to assume every now and then about rocks (simply not whereas standing in the midst of a highway). Local weather happens aboveground; it’s simple to ascertain its results. The exact minimize of the Pinot Noirs from brothers Andy and Nick Peay and winemaker Vanessa Wong — “density however not heaviness,” Andy stated — owes lots to the cooling impact of the Pacific Ocean, 4 miles west. However vines have roots, and roots develop down, into the soil and the stone.

Andy stated about his and Nick’s impetus to discovered their winery again in 1996, “We wished extra of that florality and tea and earth that you just weren’t discovering in California Pinot within the Nineties.” These traits come from the Sonoma Coast’s ocean-driven climate, but in addition from the results of the rock-tumbler, fault-derived jumble of geology that lies below vineyards right here. “The massive elements for all of us out listed here are the local weather, after which geology and geography. And the geology and geography are pushed by the fault.”

Hirsch Vineyards is simply about 10 miles from Peay, however it took me an hour to drive there. The western Sonoma coast isn’t a spot for followers of straight roads. However it’s stunningly dramatic in its magnificence, stuffed with dense redwood forests, windswept ridges, and hidden vineyards — completely not like the manicured prettiness of someplace like Napa Valley. (Though the most effective place to attempt Hirsch wines is at their cozy tasting room in Healdsburg, as a result of the vineyard isn’t open to the general public.)

It was a sunny day, so reasonably than style indoors, winemaker Jasmine Hirsch and I took a number of bottles to the highest of Block 16, a small amphitheater of vines mendacity on the western fringe of the property. “The land right here is folded,” she defined. “It’s like in the event you unfold out a thick blanket on the ground and mushed all of it collectively. Nothing’s flat. We have now each single facet, each single publicity. And the place the fog will get to, and the place it doesn’t, and the rationale we get a lot rain right here, that’s all tied to the topography. And the topography was produced by the seismic exercise of the fault.”

For that cause, Hirsch’s flagship Pinot cuvée is known as San Andreas Fault. “My dad all the time likes to say that our property was outlined by the fault, in order that’s what he named it,” Jasmine defined. Hirsch Vineyards was established in 1980 by her father, David, on the location of an previous sheep ranch, and it’s inarguably certainly one of California’s biggest Pinot Noir vineyards; Jasmine now makes the wine, whereas David oversees the viticulture.

The San Andreas Fault cuvée is a mix of various blocks from the property’s 72 acres of vines, vivid with pink berry fruit, layered, and complicated. “It’s your complete winery in a single glass,” Jasmine stated as we seemed out throughout the vines. The solar flamed in my glass as I took one other sip. Previous the rows of vines, the land dropped proper all the way down to the fault line, then climbed to the subsequent ridge. Then, nothing however the Pacific. “On a transparent day from right here you’ll be able to see whitecaps,” she stated.

David Hirsch has typically stated that “the terroir of Hirsch is earthquake terroir,” and whereas Hirsch Pinots typically have a particular, brambly, raspberry character (one thing I discover within the Peay Pinots, too), it’s necessary to not oversimplify what makes a wine style the way in which it does. You may’t actually say that Pinot Noirs made on the west aspect of the San Andreas all style like raspberries and people on the east aspect like black cherries, for instance; there’s no one-to-one correspondence. When a wine has character — actual character, not ersatz, industrial, made-in-the-millions-of-cases character — the sources of that character are all the time complicated. However in regard to the fault, one thing Andy Peay stated about his wines appears apt: “Possibly it’s simply that there’s a sort of basic power. There are these two big plates, the North American and the Pacific, preventing one another, a couple of miles below our ft. If you happen to get too particular, positive, that’s when what you’re saying hits the bullshit button. However there have to be one thing there.”

The Santa Cruz Mountains

From Hirsch, I adopted the road of the fault to Tomales Bay and the waterside inn and restaurant Nick’s Cove, then on down by means of San Francisco to the Santa Cruz Mountains. There, I ended for the evening in Los Gatos. That was largely, I admit, in order that I may make a breakfast pilgrimage to Manresa Bread, the supply of the crunchiest, butteriest kouign-amann pastries wherever. (Combat me — head baker Avery Ruzicka is a genius, and I stand by that.)

However Los Gatos was additionally the place, again in 1989, my aunt Amy was dwelling when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit and tossed her home down the aspect of a mountain. (If you happen to consider the San Andreas Fault as an enormous river working north to south, then the Loma Prieta fault is certainly one of its minor tributaries.) She’d gone grocery procuring and was within the driveway, simply getting out of her automotive when this occurred. My aunt was unhurt, and she or he had earthquake insurance coverage, however it’s price noting that afterward she moved to Bodega Bay and lived the remainder of her life on the water.

My vacation spot was Thomas Fogarty Vineyard, simply previous the Windy Hill Open House Protect, and after I obtained there, I requested proprietor Tommy Fogarty Jr. if he remembered the Loma Prieta quake. “Completely. I wasn’t right here myself, however we found out fairly shortly the quake positive was,” he advised me. “Our winemaker was driving all the way down to Santa Cruz, and buildings began touchdown on the highway on Freeway 17.”

Even so, and even with my aunt’s story in thoughts, mass destruction was exhausting to ascertain as we stood there on the vineyard’s redwood-railed deck, surrounded by tables of weekend wine tasters, all cheerfully chatting whereas sipping Fogarty wines. Bay Space residents stay with the prospect of earthquakes the identical approach everybody I knew rising up in Houston lived with the concept of hurricanes: They occur generally, no query, however on a day-to-day foundation, you simply get on together with your life.

Beneath us, the Fogarty vineyards stairstepped down the slope: Portola Springs at 1,920 ft, Rapley Path at 1,650 ft, Razorback Winery at 1,400 ft. The fault itself lay buried on the backside, below numerous multimillion-dollar Silicon Valley properties. I sipped one of many Fogarty Chardonnays within the glass I held. It tasted like white wine, not like homes falling onto a freeway.

After I left Fogarty, I headed south, crossing the backbone of the mountains to the Santa Cruz aspect. Outdoors Corralitos, Sante Arcangeli Household Wines winemaker and proprietor John Benedetti and I clambered up a rickety ladder to face on the roof of an previous barn at his Cut up Rail Winery. An unparalleled view over forests and vineyards towards the Pacific unfold out earlier than us, making me much less acutely aware of the truth that I used to be standing on a sloping unrailed roof with a 40-foot drop to the bottom under.

“We’re standing on an uplifted piece of the Pacific Plate — previous lake backside from the Pliocene, Purisima sandstone,” Benedetti stated. “You’ll discover fossilized shells right here.” He pointed towards the subsequent ridgeline, towards the ocean. “However that mountain is generally Franciscan clay. And behind us,” he stated, turning, “the east aspect of the appellation over there, on the North American plate, that’s a completely completely different world. In different phrases, it’s San Andreas Fault all the way in which round us.”

That night, I met Benedetti for dinner at House restaurant in Soquel, a do-not-miss spot the place chef Brad Briske depends on coastal California substances for quirky, sensible dishes like squid-ink orecchiette with clams and pork stomach in a cider-chile-miso broth. Eating at one of many picnic tables within the expansive yard on a heat evening can’t be beat.

Benedetti and I poured his Cut up Rail Winery Pinot in opposition to his Lester Household Winery Pinot, the previous spicier, darker-flavored, the latter lighter, extra red-fruited. Soil? Geology? The age of the vines, the path the rows face, completely different microclimates, completely different harvest dates? Onerous to pinpoint, although loads of enjoyable for a pair of wine geeks to debate, which we proceeded to do late into the evening.

The Cienega Valley

I wasn’t going to comply with the San Andreas all the way in which to the place it petered out close to Southern California’s Salton Sea, however the closing leg of my fault jaunt did take me to completely completely different terrain. The Cienega Valley is dry and scorching, 22 miles from the ocean and about 10 miles south of Hollister. It’s house to numerous farmland, but in addition Eden Rift Vineyards, an oasis of vines embraced on three sides by hills coated in oaks. No evergreens right here. After I took the flip off Cienega Street to Eden Rift, I handed the previous Almaden vineyard, constructed within the Nineteen Fifties. The fault runs instantly below it, and its partitions not contact in locations as a result of seismic exercise. 

Proprietor Christian Pillsbury named his vineyard Eden Rift each as a nod to John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and as a reference to the rift — the fault — that runs proper by means of it. Vines have grown right here since 1849, when a Frenchman named Theophile Vaché planted some Mission grapes, making this the oldest constantly planted winery in California.

Pillsbury stated, “It wasn’t like Vache checked out this place again within the mid-1800s and stated, ‘Effectively, there’s this tectonic motion right here that’s superb, so clearly it’s an ideal place for wine grapes.’ However that’s roughly why it’s.” Topology and topography: the slant of the hillside terraces, the bowl of the valley, the earth and rock. “The soil right here is all shattered granite and limestone,” Pillsbury stated. A lot limestone, in actual fact, a lot ocean ground hurled violently upward greater than a millennium in the past, that the roads threading the property are vivid white within the solar.

Eden Rift is distant, as wineries go, however well worth the time it takes to get there. I sat outdoors, tasting Pinots at a picnic desk outdoors the Dickinson Home, a beautiful instance of early-Twentieth-century Prairie College structure, constructed for that period’s proprietor. Pillsbury’s wines have been glorious; I used to be impressed each by them and by the property’s profound silence. As I sipped, a hawk soared far overhead and disappeared into the empty sky. Then nothing moved. Nothing made a sound. Miles under me, huge continental plates have been grinding slowly in opposition to one another, maybe constructing cataclysmic pressures within the course of. However there was no proof of that in the intervening time, besides, maybe, within the specific exact pressure of the flavors in my glass of wine.

Take a San Andreas wine journey

Harbor Home Inn

2019 F&W Greatest New Chef Matthew Kammerer does magical issues with native substances (tempura maitake mushrooms with lace lichen, black cod smoked over bay laurel, marigold ice cream) at Harbor Home Inn on the coast close to Elk. Begin a San Andreas journey at this luxury inn and restaurant with a glass of Champagne on the porch overlooking the Pacific; the fault runs below the ocean within the distance.

Peay Vineyards

Within the far north of the Sonoma Coast appellation, Andy Peay, Nick Peay, and Vanessa Wong make stellar Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah from their beautiful organically farmed property. Andy Peay says, “We weren’t essentially searching for a spot that was stunning, however we obtained tremendous fortunate.” Tastings at Peay Vineyards are by appointment.

The On line casino Bar & Grill

Cease on the historic On line casino Bar & Grill in Bodega for something from a can of Bud to a glass of Arnot-Roberts rosé. It’s as old-fashioned as old-fashioned will get, with wallpaper from 1939 and a pair of pool tables which are nearly as venerable.

Nick’s Cove

This practically 100-year-old resort and restaurant on Tomales Bay began as a herring smokehouse, and Nick’s Cove nonetheless smokes fish for the elegant smoked black cod dip on the menu. (Immediately, it’s achieved over Pinot Noir barrel shavings.) Additionally, don’t miss the wonderful cioppino. Keep in one of many cottages sitting over the water — a non-public deck is a wonderful place to ponder the geology of the fault, which runs straight down the bay.

Thomas Fogarty Vineyard

From its perch atop Skyline Boulevard close to Woodside, the Thomas Fogarty Vineyard makes terrific single-vineyard Pinots and Chardonnays, due to the skills of proprietor Thomas Fogarty Jr. and longtime winemaker Nathan Kandler. It’s a well-liked weekend vacation spot for Silicon Valley locals.

Manresa Bread

Manresa Bread is an important morning pit cease in Los Gatos earlier than visiting wineries. Get the delicately crunchy kouign-amann, although additionally don’t miss the flaky almond “escargot” or the luscious whole-wheat chocolate chip cookies. And decide up a loaf of levain for later.

Lodge Los Gatos

As a house base for visiting Santa Cruz Mountains wineries, you’ll be hard-pressed to do higher than Lodge Los Gatos.

House

Chef Brad Briske serves a number of the finest meals on both aspect of the Santa Cruz Mountains at House in Soquel, counting on coastal California substances for bold (however by no means fussy) dishes like Marin Miyagi oysters with habanero-apple granita. His housemade charcuterie can be stellar.

Sante Arcangeli Household Wines

At Sante Arcangeli Household Wines on the mountainside in Pescadero, winemaker-owner John Benedetti pours his top-notch, terroir-driven Pinots and Chardonnays in a 140-year-old barn at Harley Farms, a working goat farm — the cheese is to not be missed, both.

Eden Rift Vineyards

At this oasis of a vineyard, 20 miles inland from Monterey within the Cienega Valley, you’ll be able to sit outdoors the 1906 Dickinson Home and style the vineyard’s glorious Pinots, Chardonnays, and Syrahs (and presumably its restricted, 100-year-old-vines Zinfandel). Or guide an ATV tasting and discover your complete Eden Rift property, glass in hand.