Last Monday, we described our visit to the Santa Cruz Mountains for a taste (or rather, for many tastes) of Pinot at the Pathway to Pinot Paradise.   Our self-guided itinerary for the day led us to four different wineries, but we’ve chosen to discuss only two: Alfaro Family Vineyards, the feature of last week’s posting, and Windy Oaks Estate Vineyards and Winery, today’s featured winery.  While the remaining wineries boasted gorgeous settings, we were not bedazzled by the wines offered at either, and thus, we have decided to focus only on the two that captured our attention through their excellent Pinots.

We reached Windy Oaks by driving through a green meadow along an unpaved path that eventually led to the open-doored, barn-like structure where the tasting was held.   Framing the barn were tall, striking redwoods, a vineyard to the left, and fog-embraced mountains in the background.  

We waited in line for our glasses to be filled and listened as the pourer behind the table, the winemaker himself, described Windy Oaks’ Pinots as representing the purest expression of the grapes involved.  These were traditional Burgundian-style wines, with a light-intensity, amber-like color.  Interestingly, even though each bottle was decanted for a short period prior to being poured — a procedure we had never before seen used at any California winery — we found the wines we sampled to be quite tight at first sniff and were relieved only when, with some aggressive swirling and patience, they opened up nicely.

Our favorite wine on offer was the 2006 Estate Wild Yeast — as the name suggests, all of the yeast used for fermentation was not the industrial variety, but rather derived from the grapes themselves.  As is it was described to us, this was Pinot in its most natural form.  We approved!  

www.WindyOaksEstate.com
380 Sweetwood Way
Corralitos, California 95076
(831) 786-WINE