2023 Alfaro Family Vineyards, Grüner Veltliner, La Playita Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains.
One of the first top notch dry Grüners in California, Alfaro’s estate La Playita Vineyard Grüner Veltliner, Austria’s signature white grape, is a dynamic and crisp version with bright lemon/lime, gooseberry, quince and tart white peach fruits, along with white pepper, verbena, bitter almond, sea shore and wet stone accents in a zesty lighter framed palate. i’ve always been a fan of this wine and Ryan Alfaro has hit a home run with this vintage, this golden straw tinted 2023, which is due for public release soon, is electric and crystalline, rivaling many of its cousins from the old world. This Grüner saw a cool stainless fermentation and after settling it was aged 6 months on its fine lees in neutral oak, to promote freshness and purity, while allowing for some textural quality. Just around 250 cases of the Alfaro Family Vineyards La Playita Vineyard Grüner Veltliner were produced and I would gather from my own reaction and other who tried at a recent trade tasting in San Francisco, this one that will sell out fast.
Ryan Alfaro, who is also gaining a great reputation for his personal Farm Cottage Wines, is a latest generation of Alfaro’s to craft wines at this hilly site, less than 8 miles from the cool Pacific Ocean and set on sandy loam soils between 450 to 800 feet above sea level, perfect for cool climate varietals. The long growing season here allows for deep flavors and retains plenty of zesty acidity, as seen here in the latest edition of Alfaro’s GrüVee. Ryan worked many years with his dad Richard, who got things started here in the late 1990s, in the cellar, in recent years he’s taken a bigger role with great success. After doing a stint with California legend Adam Tolmach at Ojai Vineyards and studying wine in New Zealand, he has brought a lot passion to the family business and has, as noted above, put a lot of hard work in to get to this point, and Ryan’s personal project Farm Cottage Wines is natural extension to these efforts at this small Corralitos estate. It was great to catch up with Ryan recently, along with his dad Richard at their distributor’s portfolio tasting in San Francisco, and I was highly impressed with the full set of Alfaro wines, including some of my other favorites here, like the Trout Gulch Chardonnay and Pinot, along with the regular Estate Pinot Noir, all of which are beautifully drinking wines.
($34 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive