Santa Lucia Highlands Winegrowers’ Gala
Ξ April 28th, 2008 | → | ∇ A Day at a Time, Wine News, Wineries |
I ventured up into the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA some weeks ago while doing research on the Mission Soledad itself located on the Salinas valley floor. The SLH AVA is one of many AVAs contained within the Central Coast AVA and borders the Monterey AVA which included the Salinas Valley and Carmel Valley on the west side of the SLH range. Established in 1991, the SLH AVA begins at 40′ above sea level and vineyards can be found as high as 1200′. Recent data indicates 4,700 acres of grapes under cultivation though I suspect more has been recently planted. I saw many new plantings along the AVA’s frontage River Road. Indeed, nested within the web site is another figure of 5,523 acres under cultivation. In any event, it is safe to say the AVA is clearly undergoing a period of considerable growth! Grapes grown include modest amounts of cab franc and syrah, even petit verdot, but far and away the lion’s share of acreage is dedicated to chardonnay and pinot noir.
And on May 17th the vintners of the Santa Lucia Highlands will be hosting the 2nd Annual SLH Winegrowers’ Gala.
Curiously, the official SLH web site does not have a sufficiently detailed map for driving instructions. They do, however, provide a link to the River Road Wine Trail which will save readers here a step.
As a side note, I strongly encourage those planning to attend to consider taking the Carmel Valley Road either from the West side of the SLH Range should you be coming down Highway 1, or travel it back over should 101 be your approach. Prepare to add more than an hour to your regional tour. Drive safely!
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