Thanks to the perennially outstanding wine from Ridge’s Monte Bello vineyard (seen above overlooking Silicon Valley), California’s Santa Cruz Mountains have been associated with high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon in the minds of many wine lovers since at least the famous Paris Tasting of 1976. The grape’s history in the region goes back to 1940, when Martin Ray planted the first cuttings at what would become Mount Eden Vineyards on the eastern flank of the Coast Range above Silicon Valley.

Monte Bello’s reputation notwithstanding, in the decades that followed, the Santa Cruz Mountains have become better known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay than for Cabernet. A few dedicated producers – such as Kathryn Kennedy and Mount Eden – have never wavered in their commitment to producing excellent examples of the grape. But for every Cabernet producer in the appellation, there are now five or six making burgundian varieties.

In the last decade, however, new bottlings of Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet have been appearing with greater frequency, often from smaller, well-known producers based elsewhere in California. Some of these wines are reminding California wine lovers that Cabernet comes in more flavours than just ‘Napa’ – and that the elegant, lower-alcohol, herb-inflected wines of the late 1970s and early 1980s aren’t impossible, even in a warming climate.

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