Fresh as the Mountain Air: Madson Wines Uncorks New Releases

Seeing how wines develop from barrel tasting to their finishing school best—long before they are bottled and then go off on their own to be the grown-up versions of themselves—is always fascinating. 

Wines sometimes have such strong personalities, you can’t forget them. As you prepare to taste the wines upon release, after they have spent some time composing themselves after the utter shock of bottling, you wonder how they’ve evolved.

Like a teacher recalling the kids euphemistically labeled as “a handful,” it’s easy to remember the wines with the brash youthfulness of adolescent grapeness: have they calmed down during elevage? Did they need to be sent to boarding school?  

Sometimes you are shocked at how young the wine still appears when you pop the cork: this is often the case with wines bottled soon after they have wrapped up fermentation and have chilled out for a spell. These are the wines that went to Junior College. Then there are the ones take a while longer to develop, generally reds, especially those like Cabernet Sauvignon that benefit from a tad more (wood) education.  Which partially explains why Cab is so darned expensive. 

Last weekend, my friend Maxine and I sat down with winemaker Cole Thomas of Madson Wines at his winery and tasting room on the Westside of Santa Cruz, to taste the gems from vintage 2023, some of which I had two years ago sampled out of barrel. We sat down with Madson tasting room manager Ali, who is one sharp young woman, and one with a vision for how she’d like to see the Santa Cruz food scene develop. More on that later.

It must be noted that a focused tasting during harvest, while you are trying to work out the kinks of a newly acquired press, is not good for concentration. Thomas, already geared up for the onslaught of grapes, moved seamlessly between the tasks, while also texting his handy local electrician, a godsend during this maniacal time of year when keeping every mechanical device running smoothly is the dream of those who have no time to sleep.

Harvest is a magical amalgam of exhilaration and utter exhaustion. Thomas had recently brought in Aligote from a Saratoga Vineyard and was next expecting Chardonnay from a vineyard above the Lexington Reservoir on Soda Springs Road. “Looks great and a good yield, about 2.5 tons and sitting at 21.5B, and a pH of 3.2,” Thomas told us. But that was before the inevitable Labor Day heat wave that always adds some excitement to the already overstimulated curriculum.

A hush fell as we sniffed the 2024 Chenin Blanc (12.8%) from Gemelli in San Benito County, with its alluring aromas of stone fruit, nectarine and wet slate. It impressed mightily on the palate with pear, guava, and a hint of lanolin. I daresay my mind immediately went to Humboldt fog goat cheese. For those in search of Chenin, make this a quest. It’s absolutely brilliant. 

Next, came the 2023 Misty Gulch Chardonnay (13.4%), a small lot fermentation from the Portola Valley hills, that filled three barrels, mostly used. Its reductive nature might put off some, but for me and Thomas, it presented intrigue. 

He said he was trying for a Meursault style, which always has that matchstick, sometimes scalded butter entry, that almost always clears like a fog to reveal a bright core of fruit with a tremendous acid backbone. This mountain Chardonnay, with aromatics of lemon curd, wet stone and stone fruit, presents a lovely viscosity that floods the midpalate with richness, including succulent grilled pineapple. Miraculously, all the viscosity then dissipates, leaving a refreshingly brisk finish. Like a self-cleaning oven. 

Tasting the 2023 Toyon Pinot Noir (13.4%) was like visiting an old friend, as I’ve ridden through this redwood and Doug fir bounded vineyard, notable for its gorgeous Monterey cypress in the middle of the vineyard. I’d also barrel-sampled this baby in its youth. Thomas and his friend Tino Paccione farm this spot, with the help of some sheep that reside at the property. One whiff of this wine and it takes you right to the site, echoing the evergreen influence with a distinct hit of juniper,  which compliments the bright cranberry and primary red fruit, framed by cracked pepper. 

“After 18 months in barrel, when it feels like it’s developed, we bottle this,” explains Thomas. “We want to capture that freshness, even though the tannins are still quite prominent.”  

And fresh it is, like arriving at a Santa Cruz Mountains Christmas tree farm on a brisk pre-winter morning when it’s cold enough to see your breath and you wish you hadn’t left your scarf in the car. The tannins are fairly austere now, but will certainly soften, and the red fruit and black pepper will mellow. We hope it forever maintains its similarity to gin. 

All of us were stunned by the sheer brilliance of the 2024 “Côte Blonde” Syrah (12.9%), a blend from three chalky soil sites, including Kessler Hawk in Sta. Rita Hills, and the Red Tail and Ascona Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Thomas says all the sites have chalky white soils, and are all on the Pacific Plate. 

Cote Blonde delivers nose-tingling aromatics of fresh picked blueberry, grilled meats and crushed violets, and it wins you over instantly with its lovely candied raspberry and cherry charm, amplified by red licorice, lively basil, black olive tapenade and a streak of fresh tomato coulis. This is one high octane, low alcohol, dynamite food wine. With its peppery black finish, it practically does cartwheels across your palate. 

Thomas explained that the stems don’t ripen the same way in the Sta. Rita Hills as they do in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where they tend to get fully lignified, turning brown rather than remaining green. That’s why it’s more common to see whole cluster Syrah and Pinot Noir from the Santa Cruz Mountains than from Santa Rita Hills. 

We tasted one of the components of this blend, albeit from an earlier year, with the 2023 Red Tail Syrah (13.5%), from a 1,600 ft elevation site in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near Summit Road and Eden Canyon. They generally get about 1.5 bins from this 1.4 acre vineyard, planted in the 1990s to the Estrella Cote Rotie clone of Syrah. The steep vineyard borders the Soquel Demonstration forest, which may explain why it punches you in the face with its lively perfume of camphor and menthol. That’s not to say it isn’t fruity: there is plenty of lively red fruit, which is joined on the palate by a distinctive presence of pine and fir, creating an ebullient, brisk and amazing wine that could only be Syrah. Thomas says the vineyard is so steep, they had to dig stairs into it. Sounds like a perfect spot to use llamas or alpacas for grape harvesting.

Our tasting was not done until we tried the 2023 Massa Cabernet Sauvignon from the old Durney Vineyard in Carmel Valley, planted in 1968. Its fate going forward is still unknown, since the vineyard was sold. Thomas says for their Cabernet going forward they are pivoting to Luchessi Vineyard in the eastern Santa Cruz Mountains, a site long championed by Jeff Emery of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard. 

Made in all neutral wood, this Massa is old school Cabernet, unbound by winemaking constraints, and pouring forth its soul of mint, cracked peppercorns and leather. The palate reveals pure gritty dark cherry, cassis and chewy tannins, like a seething rodeo bull backing into the fence to give its would-be rider the shortest run possible, and the bull, its freedom to romp. Says Thomas, “I like to give a wine room: it’s nice to have somewhere to go.”

But wait: there’s more. Thomas wanted to show us an example of a 100% whole cluster Cabernet Sauvignon he made in 2020 from a vineyard near Hecker Pass, just inside the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. The intensity of this one was heralded by its gorgeous nose of pure Bordeaux-like barnyard, along with leather, cherry, anise, thyme and oregano. The tannins pounce on you like a mountain lion, and the flavors of dark chocolate, mint, and dried blueberry build like a page turner. This is one great novel that needs a few more years and a well-seasoned ribeye or flank steak with some wine-marinated grilled onions to truly appreciate. 

So back to Ali and her food for thought. She’d like to see fewer pop-up places on the Santa Cruz food scene that feature stuff like pizza, oysters, tacos and the like, and more serious food instead. Why can’t we have more restaurants that utilize the produce from the region and seafood right from the Bay? We need more places to get a real salad with wholesome proteins: places we’re proud to bring friends and family who visit from other foodie places, looking for something other than beachfront fried food. We agreed we already miss Izakaya West End. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a Santa Cruz version of Mentone? Patience may be a virtue, but evolution is hard to watch. 

Meanwhile, there’s a wine for every season, and for every reason. We’re glad the folks at Madson do all the hard work of grape farming, winemaking and wine rearing, so we can reap the rewards with a simple corkscrew. 

Madson Wines, 328 Ingalls St. Suite G, Santa Cruz | madsonwines.com