History
The planting belongs to the generation of Santa Cruz Mountains vineyards that followed Martin Ray's material out of Saratoga and down the range. Most accounts credit the vines to Mount Eden cuttings set straight into the ground rather than grafted, and date the upper hill to 1979 or 1980, the lower section to 1990. Madson tells it differently, putting the planting at 1972 and the selection at massale material believed to have come from David Bruce, with no records left to settle it. Either version leads back to the same place: Bruce planted Bear Creek Road in the early 1960s with cuttings from Martin Ray, and Mount Eden is Ray's own Saratoga ground. Foxx, who came to the range in 1989 to work for Randall Grahm at Bonny Doon, farms the vineyard organically.
The Site
Corralitos sits at the southern, seaward end of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, in a Corralitos and Pleasant Valley sub-region the growers association recognizes but the appellation map does not. The vineyard sits on a steep hillside above Corralitos, where cold air off Monterey Bay and the upwelling offshore keep the site cold and the season long. Published elevations run from about 1,140 feet to 1,600; the producers who have worked the fruit put it near 1,200. Soils are sandy loam over sandstone, deep on the flat ground and thin on the eroding slope, though at least one reference calls the parent rock Franciscan shale. Crops are small: Arnot-Roberts reported 1.5 tons to the acre in 2012.
Vines and Blocks
Pinot Noir on its own roots , in two age bands a decade apart. Madson works the site as two named blocks rather than by planting date: Basin lies flat in a hollow among the redwoods on deep sandy loam and gives the higher-toned, perfumed fruit, while Hillside climbs the steep ground above on shallow sandstone and gives the darker, denser wine.
The Wines
Arnot-Roberts made a Legan Pinot Noir from 2012 through 2019, fermented whole cluster on native yeast, and now lists the vineyard among its past sites. Madson took the fruit for 2020 and 2021, again whole cluster, then nine months in older barrels. The wines are pale and red-fruited, structured by acid rather than tannin, and carry the forest as damp earth, bark and underbrush. Cold years and small crops can push the savory side past the fruit, and the Prince of Pinot found a green note in the 2018. That is the bargain a dry-farmed vineyard makes at the cold end of the range.