Yeast of Eden: Madson Fills New Home With Delicious Ferments

September 23, 2022 – New year, old space, new tenants. We are standing in the cavernous former tank room of MJA, which before that was the tank room of Bonny Doon Vineyards. It’s currently the new winery and tasting room for Madson Wines, their iconic label art splashed in white on the outside corner of the russet colored warehouse building nearest to New Life Market on Swift and Fair in Santa Cruz.

Winemaker/owner of Madson Wines Cole Thomas, tall enough to change lightbulbs without a stool, greets me wearing an olive green Madson t-shirt that brings out the green in his sparkling eyes. Every time I see him, he seems taller, but maybe I am shrinking. Almost three weeks into harvest, he’s definitely eager for it to wrap, but all the fermenting activity around him seems to provide a pheromonic adrenaline boost. 

The MJA tasting room and winery occupies the Swift Street side of the building, with New Leaf utilizing the middle portion for storage, their forklifts constantly moving stuff out to the store. It’s a busy little block, for sure. Madson Wines occupies the back corner of the warehouse that opens to the parking lot, where many of their fermenting bins are lined outside, just as they are around the corner in front of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard. 

There is a lot of history here in this warehouse. And more is being made as we chat, moving around the barrels filled with the fruit of 2022, some even overflowing in their zest to turn grapes into alcohol. Bless that yeast. Thomas points out where the catwalks used to run, allowing workers to move around the tops of the giant fermenters that once filled the entirety of this space. Although it is 4,000 square feet, more than three times the size of their former facility, it already feels pretty full, with barrels stacked everywhere. 

Thomas is grateful to have the space to process the onslaught of fruit that happened just prior to and during the first part of the heat wave that hit over Labor Day weekend. It’s a great blessing. 

“This is so much better than our previous space, which was just such a challenge, due to its small size. But even now, 4,000 square feet doesn’t feel that big!”

This year, they aim to make around 3,500 cases—a big jump in growth from where they were just two years ago. It’s a good thing he has help. He introduces me to his buddy Justino “Tino” Paccione, a lanky, tousle-haired San Diegan with that unmistakable surfer boy tan and cheery optimism that the next wave, no matter how potentially dangerous, will offer a thrill worth the risk. He and Cole met at UCSC and quickly hit it off. They really bonded when they went on a 9-month road trip across the country to sell coffee for Kicking Horse Coffee. 

“It was a learning experience and a bonding experience, for sure!” says Cole. “You really have to get along with someone to travel like that, to be on the road for that long.” They were happy to get off the coffee circuit and both immersed themselves in wine. Tino got a harvest job at Fogarty with winemaker Nathan Kandler in 2017, then joined Cole for harvest 2018. They’ve been working together at Madson ever since.  

Madson is mostly sold out of vintage 2020, which was miniscule, and the 2021’s are going rapidly. Of harvest 2022, Thomas, who got his start working with Jeff Emery at Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, says, “It’s a good thing we saw it coming and put water on the vines. And we got fruit off Ascona and Toyon before it hit. We got lucky, because things got nuked by the heat. We picked Toyon Pinot Noir on September 2 this year: last year, it was Sept 20.” 

Thomas says that Emery has also been up to his eyeballs in fruit this year. “He told me this harvest has really kicked his ass. He’s never seen anything like it in his 40 years of winemaking. Everything literally all came in at once.”

For Thomas and viticulturist Ken Swegles, his partner in Madson Wines, it was a genuinely wild ride through the heat wave. They also trucked up Sauv Blanc from Arroyo Grande, Chard from Misty Gulch in Portola Valley, Chard from Redwood Grade and Woody’s Vineyard in Branciforte, as well as a Pinot Noir from Branciforte. 

They are still waiting for Chenin Blanc from Los Alamos Vineyard in Santa Barbara. “These are 60 year old vines, planted in pure sand dunes, and they are head trained: classic California sprawl. We are also waiting for the Ascona Syrah and the Kessler-Haak Syrah from Sta. Rita Hills.” 

It was time to taste some of these nascent wines, beginning with the Sauv Blanc from Arroyo Grande. They have two versions going: one is direct press, which we tasted out of barrel, and the other is a skin-contact barrel ferment still ongoing. “We want to get the best possible representation of this vineyard,” says Thomas. “It’s very sandy soil.” This wine came across as orange creamsicle, with mango and pineapple guava, already displaying a rich mouthful, and yet whisked along by brisk acidity. After tank fermenting, it had just been barreled down, where it will rest from 6 to 9 months before being bottled. This is going to rock.

The 2022 Ascona Chardonnay, of which there is far less than hoped, due to devastating spring frosts, is lively, with its heart set on being a tropical vacation, throwing off heady floral aromas and flavors of pineapple and tangerine. The 2022 Toyon Chardonnay was showing a bit reductive, which Thomas says he welcomes, because it adds complexity. It’s minerally and lemony, with plentiful acid and true Santa Cruz Mountains character.  

Then it was on to the Misty Gulch Chardonnay, from the Spring Hill Vineyard site formerly farmed by the Varners. It oozes honeysuckle and spring flowers and presents that signature honey note on the finish. It’s exciting how each Chardonnay barrel sample shows something completely different. Thomas says, “I love Chardonnay! I could just focus on that. I do want to make more.”

But it was time to switch gears and taste a few of the Pinot Noirs. First up was the Toyon, which was magenta dark and peppery in the nose, I easily thought it could masquerade as Grenache. Packed with blackberry, blueberry and cranberry, this is one energetic and spicy wine, as filled with color on the palate as it is in the glass. 

The Pinot Noir from the “Vosne” Vineyard, so called for the fact it is planted to the Vosne-Romanée clone, (see my article on “Oddball Pinot Noir Clones” PinotClones), is a gorgeous plum color in the glass, with great character, even if a bit reductive, which brought out the savory notes in contrast to the vibrant raspberry and cranberry.  

We also sampled a Pinot Noir from a Corralitos Vineyard in Browns Valley that Swegles and Thomas had taken over farming of recently. “I’m so excited about this vineyard! We did a lot of leaf pulling, which really made a difference.” All Dijon clones, they were processed 100% whole cluster, which imparts structure and length to the core of pomegranate, blackberry and baking spice. I loved the predominance of coriander on the nose and palate. A truly fun wine. 

Then it was time to sit down at picnic tables to check out current releases in the tasting room, which is a work in progress. The bar is going to be flanked by vineyard maps and soil displays from each vineyard. 

We started with the 2021 Misty Gulch Chardonnay, which is pure honey almond granola, the perfect Santa Cruz wine. The 2021 Santa Cruz Mountains blend showcases the variety of vineyards in the portfolio, melding them into a mélange of quince, lemon, creamy pear and white fig, generous and open on the palate while staying focused and linear in its delivery. Really excellent encapsulation of the AVA.

The 2021 Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir combines fruit from the Toyon and Meadowridge Vineyards, for a redwood forest influenced blend of pomegranate and cranberry, lacquered nicely with exotic Asian spices and cedar, finishing with crunchy almost chewy tannins and a dollop of cherry. 

The 2021 Ascona Pinot Noir has the intent and energy of a field marshal: it’s a big, determined wine with a core of hearty cranberry and cinnamon and crunchy red apple, with grippy tannin and a hint of orange peel on the finish. This will develop splendidly over decades. Cellar this one and be rewarded.

The 2021 Kessler-Haak Syrah, however, is meant to drink now, with its raucous take on blueberry pie and racy pomegranate, elevated further by cracked pepper. It is a joyful wine with a hint of spearmint and green olive. This wine represents youthful optimism. Drink it to lift your mood.

If, however, you want to have a serious conversation with a bottle, but you don’t necessarily want to invite over George Thorogood and his friends Jack and Jim, choose the 2021 Ascona Syrah. Deep woods dark, it opens with intriguing aromas of fir, redwood, plum, chocolate, and cinnamon red hots, then completely switches up the game with olive tapenade, elderberries and roasted chiles, its tannins built for berry sauced game: think wild boar or achiote rubbed venison. Made with 100% whole cluster, this is built for decades of contemplation, perhaps looking back on the harvest of 2021 as one of the best ever, in the long term scheme of things. 

Who knows how the rest of 2022 will play out. But what’s in the barrels at Madson augurs pretty well for patient wine lovers.