Stuffing the Ballot Box at Big Sur Food & Wine

November 5, 2024 – Big Sur has a way of making the rest of the world look pretty routine. When you watch guys descending the sheared-off side of the Rocky Creek Bridge to make repairs on the damaged roadway, it restores your faith in the engineering abilities of mankind, and also renews your respect for the only person in charge around here, and that’s Mother Nature. We don’t get to vote on that one. 

Arriving at The Post Ranch Inn for the annual Pinot Walkabout, one of the tastiest parts of the Big Sur Food & Wine weekend, always puts me in a reflective mood. The intensity of the craggy cliffs is matched only by the serenity of the scene, a sense of fatality, as those mountains have stood for millennia, slowly succumbing to the sea. It is a battle they cannot win.  

The inevitability of the outcome has drawn writers and philosophers here to dream the dreams that can only occur on the edge of the continent, in perhaps its most dramatic setting. Robinson Jeffers, Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, and many more have borne witness to its spell, and their writings are infused with the canyons of melancholy and the spires of inspiration that one feels when immersed in such raw, yet alluring finality. Their dreams here were deeper and more vivid than anything they had experienced elsewhere, well beyond the predictable influences of drugs and alcohol that were constantly at hand. No, this place is like giant psychic handcuffs that can bind your soul to bare rock as surely as the chains of Prometheus.

Against this backdrop, I took in the verdant energy in the Chef’s Garden at Post Ranch Inn, in some cases approaching seasonal finality. Throughout the cheery tangle of nasturtiums and zinnias were set tables for two dozen or so amazing food and wine purveyors, all gathered to share their gifts. Amidst the dazzle of orange chrysanthemums and flashes of pumpkin, cherry tomatoes glowed like tiny stoplights in the waning sun, while chard, kale and salad greens cheered them on. 

Citrus trees were heavy with slowly maturing crop, paving way for a new season of bounty. There was a sense of what fruitfulness had been, and what was yet to come. In the background, a seasoned guitarist poured his heart into the strings and made the crowd stop, listen and admire. I spied a very young woman taking photos of him with a real camera, while others captured the moment on their phones, or just stood, transfixed. Oblivious, he played on and on, like the ocean’s infinite score. 

Event photographers were zooming in on the wonder of light as it shone through magnums of 2019 Rosella’s and 2019 Siera Mar Vineyard Chardonnay from Jacob Toft, glowing in the glass with the sweetness and concentration of age. And there might have been some RS in there, too. 

Discoveries at this event are always the chief goal, but reaffirming long-held impressions has its place. Most mind blowing of all were Aaron Jackson’s 2021 Aequorea Spanish Springs Chardonnay and the 2021 Derbyshire Pinot Noir, both arresting for their graceful power and silken textures. These vineyards, both in the newly minted SLO Coast AVA, speak distinctly in the dialect of their roots. Spanish Springs is pretty much sand, yielding a wine of pure transparency, laced with salinity and a sandy slickness. 

Derbyshire Vineyard sits squarely atop one of the most inhospitable places to grow grapes on the Central Coast, less than 2 miles from the sea, constantly buffeted by extreme wind. Jackson says that the fruit set there is so uneven, that most of the berries do not have seeds, giving the wine, what precious little there is of it, an ethereal texture that compels him to return, even though it’s barely worth the effort. 

Why would you live in Big Sur, many ask? It’s so unpredictable, perilous, remote, bordering on insane. Yes: precisely. That’s the why of it. Because there is no other place like it on earth. For Jackson, to capture this mind-blowing preciousness is the greatest gift. This wine gets my vote for complete epiphany of dichotomy. How could a wine so stunning come from such an improbable spot? 

Seeking out only the most compelling mountainous sites is the provenance of Samuel L. Smith, who spent 8 years making Morgan wines. His poised, nuanced wines are laced with energy and verve, especially the 2022 Samuel L. Smith Montañita de Oro Pinot Noir that pulls from the best mountain Pinot sites of Monterey County. This wine gets my vote for most compelling Monterey travelogue, as its layers of fruit and earthiness tell the distinct stories of Double L, Pelio and Rodnick Vineyards, all from different Monterey sub-AVAs.

Earning my vote for youthful stunner was the Joyce 2022 Albatross Ridge Pinot Noir, a medley of all the clones planted at this ridgetop vineyard off Laureles Grade, done with a deftness and honesty that was like the opening lines of a riveting book that promises many more chapters of discovery. No less compelling, Joyce’s 2022 Cortada Alta Pinot Noir is power-laden and statuesque, like a crouched leopard that suddenly sits straight up and stares you in the eye. A wine to be reckoned with, and an absolute marvel. 

Wrath’s entire lineup gets my vote for most harmonious choir of soloist Pinot Noirs, considering each one can belt out its own tune. Tasting them side by side is like dissecting the musical score of the Santa Lucia Highlands. In the hands of Sabrine Rodems, Wrath’s talented winemaker, the highest elevation vineyard in the SLH, Cortada Alta, has a voice as sonorous and haunting as a viola.

Towering above the crowd with his head level with the umbrella, Ryan Alfaro had wine lovers drinking up his Farm Cottage Pinot Noir offerings with gusto. He was showing two new releases of Pinot Noir: the 2023 Santa Cruz Mountains blend of several vineyards, which was effortless and as natural as a bunch of back yard flowers, simply placed in a vase and looking like they were meant to be together. The more structured and buttoned down 2023 Trout Gulch presented pleasing orchestration at just the right level of formality. Alfaro is not one to gussy up his wines with oak flavors: he prefers neutral oak, referring to it as “old,” which raised an eyebrow or two. 

Definitely a bit polarizing, the Loner portfolio from the Sta. Rita Hills, confirmed my impression that the signature scents and flavors here leans to tomato leaf, spiced olives and green herbs, a result of the strong winds and fog that keep ripening at bay. German-born winemaker, Matthias Pippig, prefers Pinot Noir from these tenuous, back-breaking ocean-blasted sites and eschews new oak entirely, preferring 3-year elevage in 600l neutral puncheons. With an unmistakably Albrecht Durer-like precision, each uniquely and charmingly named Loner wine seems a perfect woodcut of site. The Mysterious Charm of Old Ruins is what Pippig calls his 2022 John Sebastiano Vineyard Pinot Noir, and it is wild with coastal weediness, offset by a good deal of high-toned floral aromatics that accompany the distinct impression of cranberry, rhubarb, juniper and caperberry. It gets my vote for most intriguing. I also loved his 2022 “Conspiracy of Ravens” blend, with its slightly softer, lighter touch, more like a blanket of chilly fog than a full-blown tsunami of bitter wind. 

If I had to vote for a crowd-pleasing Pinot Noir it would be Chad Silacci’s 2023 Rustique Silacci Estate Pinot Noir, wonderfully playful, with bright red flavors and abundant spice, just dancing on the palate. For most pleasantly mature with many miles to go, the vote definitely must be cast for the 2018 Twelve Clones Pinot Noir from Morgan, showing the classy depth and breadth of this Santa Lucia Highlands site. 

In the food department, chef Jerome Viel of Jerome’s Market created the perfect bite of steak tartare, composed of perfectly minced beef, shallots, capers, Abondance cheese, chives, tarragon and bubu arare (tiny balls of seasoned rice crackers), topped with Big Sur Salts black cone salt and tiny flowers. 

The onsite kitchen team at Post Ranch Inn, led by culinary director Reylon Agustin, executive chef Il Hoon Kang, chef de cuisine Jason Woodall and pastry sous chef Mariah Jernberg-Briggs, presented a delightful array of tea sandwiches, including Fogline Farms chicken salad, foie gras with stonefruit, herbed goat cheese with cranberry, wild mushroom duxelles, smoked salmon and caviar, plus an endless buffet of sweets and savories. 

Lady & Larder had a groaning table of spreads and charcuterie, while Amalia Scatena of Stationaery served a lovely bite of rare wagyu topped with pickled chiles.  

All in all, it was the harmonic convergence of amazingly diverse wines made by passionate personalities and top-notch food served by seasoned culinary professionals (meaning food you could actually eat while walking around), accompanied by perfect weather, and set in an incomparable, one-of-a-kind place. That, in a nutshell, is Pinot Walkabout at Big Sur Food & Wine, a must-do event if you’ve never done it, and even more of a must-repeat, if you already have. 

While Big Sur gets my vote, Post Ranch wins my heart.