A Day on the Mountain at Beauregard Vineyards
Prior to the holidays, I had the opportunity to try a Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Beauregard Vineyards. From the Santa Cruz Mountains, these wines showed beautiful Burgundian style that would be perfect for the table. When I decided to contact Winemaker and Owner Ryan Beauregard to find out more, he suggested I visit the winery, pointing out that the best way to understand his wines would be to see the place.
Through a series of mishaps back and forth, including holidays, illnesses and twelve truckloads of compost (Ryan sent photos of the semi-truck to prove it), I got delayed in getting there. But holiday dinner or not, these wines stand out any time of the year. And to Ryan’s point, there is so much more to these wines than just aromas and flavors. Instead, they tell a story of time and place, history and character, woven together by the hands of a talented winemaker. It was well worth the wait to fully experience it.
From San Francisco, I took Highway 1 down the coast, my car hugging the narrow road between crashing surf and rolling mountains. As I turned into the canyon and headed toward the winery, the scenery shifted to dense forest, then opened up to a small, rolling vineyard flanked by an old, historic cabin.
Beauregard Vineyards’ tasting room is in a building that has been a community gathering place in Bonny Doon for almost 100 years. Today, it is a welcome destination for day-trippers and wine sippers. Under the canopy of towering redwoods, the spot is cozy and inviting. Adirondack chairs are nestled in small patches throughout the property. Inside the tasting room, there is a long L-shaped bar crafted from barrel staves and local redwood beams, which was built by Ryan and a friend.
When I arrived, Ryan greeted me in the tasting room and we took a short walk up the hill to the winery. Although Ryan’s family has owned vineyards in this area since the 1940s, he recently purchased this tasting room and winemaking facility in 2008.
Relatively small, the space at the winery is tight, with stacks of oak barrels, stainless steel tanks, a bottling line in back and even a few carboys of brandy fermenting on the floor. Currently, Ryan’s real pride and joy are three concrete eggs in the middle of it all, filled with Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. When he talks about them, his eyes light up like a kid with a new toy. “In biodynamic winemaking, the egg is thought to be the perfect shape, found repeatedly in nature, like drops of water and flower petals. It suspends the yeast in a vortex motion and gives constant flow to the wine as it ferments and ages,” he smiles. “This unexplainable phenomenon is the stuff I thrive on - the stuff you can’t Google, you just have to trust.”
This relentless pursuit of knowledge and his endless energy to jump right in defines his style as a winemaker. Looking around, this small production winery is completely manned and operated by his incessant energy. Every step of the process - from clearing the land, planting the grapes, fermenting the fruit, bottling and selling it out the front door - Ryan is involved. “Our wines are the reflection of family perseverance,” he points out. “Everything comes from our hands, backs and sweat.”
Growing up, Ryan had no real intention of becoming a winemaker, but shortly after college, he began hobby winemaking - an easy thing to do when your family owns vineyards and has some extra grapes. After a couple vintages of making “really crappy wine” in his kitchen, Ryan took a job as a cellar rat to learn more. When more family grapes became available in 2001, he began making wine in earnest. The 2002 Chardonnay was his first commercial wine, and he opened a tasting room on the Santa Cruz pier in 2003.
He admits that when he started, he was young and lacked a developed palate. His first wines were big in style and overly extracted. To learn more, he kept talking with people and tasting wine, including regular meetings with Mark Bright and Ian Cauble. Ian was the one to notice that Ryan’s grapes were very Chablis-like. To convince Ryan of the beauty of this style, he brought over a Francois Raveneau Chablis. “It took my breath away and forever changed the path I would take,” Ryan remembers. He started paying attention to Burgundies and “excessively and obsessively” drinking European wines. This exposed him to all sorts of new profiles and flavors that he would soon pursue.
The Vineyards
We jumped in his truck and headed out to Bald Mountain Vineyard, a beautiful, rolling vineyard with the late fall leaves still clinging to the vines. Inside the gate, the road was rutted and worn from the rains, so we parked and walked up the hill to a part of the vineyard called Sand Hill. It’s easy to see where it gets its name - the topsoil is completely sand, and even though we’ve had several inches of rain in the last few weeks, there’s no mud in sight. “Isn’t geology so cool? Millions of years ago, the tectonic plates pushed the shoreline of beach right up here,” he explains. “And in the middle of the vineyard - just a few rows over - we have big rivers stones, also left here centuries ago.”
As we walk through the vineyard, he grabs at rocks and points out owl boxes and mushrooms for foraging. You can hear the hawks crying in the distance and feel the forest creeping in, holding the edges of the vineyard. From the top of the hill, the Pacific Ocean is visible, probably no more than a few miles as the crow flies. “Fog is very prevalent in the summer,” Ryan points out “Sometimes in June, there isn’t one day without it.” This combination of forest, fog and salt air is what gives these wines their distinctive profile, imparting a unique spiciness and distinctive salinity.
“Terroir is an two-fold influence of what’s above and below the ground,” he points out. “Above, we have fog, trees, and weather that influences the aromatics and flavor. Below, we have sand, gravel, and a deep root system that gives the texture to the wine.”
His family has been farming this vineyard for thirty years on a long term lease. Just recently, Ryan purchased the property and he has big plans, which includes replanting some rows to maximize the sun exposure, adding some new varietals and taking the vineyard completely organic.
The Wines
Back at the winery, Ryan gets behind the tasting bar and starts popping open bottles to taste. There is no set plan or organization to the tasting - just a sensorial tour of everything we just experienced. We started with the 2016 and 2017 Bald Mountain Chardonnays. As with all of his wines, he always picks for acid, not alcohol, allowing the terroir to be expressed more vividly. This comes across beautifully in these wines with balance of golden apples, citrus and crushed rock minerality. There is a racy acidity and distinctive, mouthwatering salinity on the finish. 2017 was a little fresher in style, due to both its age and the vintage, whereas the 2016 has a stunning complexity that’s earned it alot of acclaim.
Next, he poured all three of his “Ouef en Béton” (concrete egg) wines, and it was easy to understand his infatuation with this new project. Each of the wines seemed to vibrate with freshness and a clean, palpable tension. He described these as the “naked version” of his other wines. The 2018 Chardonnay from Bald Mountain Vineyard showed characteristic orchard fruits, citrus and minerality, but with a startling clarity. Likewise, the 2018 Pinot Noir from Beauregard Ranch, was full of bright red fruits and pretty floral notes, perfect for those who like the light, fresh Pinots. The 2018 Sauvignon Blanc, which was almost clear in color, sang with juicy acidity and vibrant minerality over white nectarines.
The 2016 Coast Grade Pinot Noir is a great expression of his winemaking style, with true Bugundian style. The wine comes from the vineyard adjacent to the winery, which sits at almost 1,300 feet, giving the wine its complex flavors and beautiful acidity. One-third of the grapes were kept whole cluster, with very little stem contact, and he uses only 20% French oak. It has a lovely herbal bouquet over dark fruit and subtle oak spices.
When we opened the 2013 Beauregard Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon, everything about this unique place came into focus. This stunning wine has distinctive douglas fir aromatics and a spicy, complex palate. Both full of flavor, yet tactfully restrained, it showed amazing depth of dark fruit, graphite, leather and forest spice. Deep, rich and multi-layered, it’s classic Cabernet with excellent balance and poise.
2017 Beauregard Ranch Zinfandel is one of their bestsellers and a beautiful Zin for people who enjoy the varietal’s flavors in a restrained, high-elevation style. The ripe, red fruits carry a nice spiciness and freshness, with soft tannins and subtle earthiness.
These wines are made to be opened, savored and shared over food. Beautifully crafted, they reflect his pride and respect for this special place that has always been home. “We’re small,” Ryan admits. “And the only way we can exist is to make the best wine possible.” Each of his wines show that commitment. To try these wines, you can only find them in three places: K&L Wines, the Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton and at the winery. Enjoy!
-Megan Greene