2024 Farm Cottage, Chardonnay, Trout Gulch Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains.
I got a chance recently to taste through the latest set of Farm Cottage releases from the 2024 vintage, which is looking to be a fantastic year for cool climate varietals, especially Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with beautiful aromatics, high energy, crisp detailing and generosity on the palate, as seen in these exceptional wines. My friend Alexis Carr of Revel Wines, who is the local rep in the Monterey and Santa Cruz area, showed me Ryan Alfaro’s Farm Cottage offerings and gave me even greater insight into these wines, which are some of the most sought after, especially this Trout Gulch Chardonnay. The 2024 version is even better than the outstanding 2023, which I rated at 94 Points, it delivers a stunning performance in the glass with lemony citrus, white peach and crisp apple fruits, and again has a steely core of mineral, a touch of saline or sea shore, clove spice, verbena and a smooth rounded mouth feel, while still having Chablis like vitality. The Farm Cottage Trout Gulch Chardonnay, as winemaker Ryan Alfaro notes, was pressed directly to stainless steel tank to settle for 24 hours before the wine was racked off solids and into stainless steel tank where natural fermentation occurred. The primary fermentation to dryness took 11 days then the wine was racked into neutral French oak for malolactic fermentation and aging. Ryan, who worked his dad in the cellar at the family estate, after doing a stint with California legend Adam Tolmach at Ojai Vineyards, studied wine in New Zealand originally and is now one of the most exciting winemakers in the Santa Cruz Mountains region. This Tout Gulch Chard just got better and better as it aired out and gained depth and complexity, making it one of the best young Chardonnays I’ve tried from California this year.
The Trout Gulch Vineyard, planted in 1980, gets loads of cool Pacific air and is uniquely set only a few miles from the ocean with an almost Clos effect from the redwood trees lining most of this 16 acre dry-farmed hillside vineyard. Sitting at 750 feet above sea level with well-draining sandy loam soils, the cool climate Trout Gulch Vineyard, with Heritage Wente clone Chardonnay and Mt Eden clone Pinot Noir selections, really is a jewel in hills above Soquel in the Southern part of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Alfaro’s, father and now son, who have been leasing the Trout Gulch site for many years, making small lot bottlings and selling grapes to top producers, and finally purchasing this vineyard outright a few years back and this wine is a fantastic way to celebrate that achievement. The Alfaro Family Vineyards, as noted here before many times, was founded by Ryan’s Dad Richard back in the early 2000s, in Corralitos is a must visit for those seeking out great values in both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, as well as specialties like the winery’s Grüner Veltliner and the new 100% estate Malbec. I was thrilled by what Alexis shared with me, of these Farm Cottage wines, and I can say, while this Trout Gulch Chardonnay is a real standout bottle, all of the lineup is worth checking out with notable efforts being the Farm Cottage Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir, a blended cuvée from estate and non estate grapes, the Trout Gulch Vineyard Pinot Noir, which I will do a full review of soon, and an all new Cabernet Sauvignon from a secret vineyard site higher up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which is just beginning to show some potential, as it is very young and deserves some time to come together. As I have said, since Ryan started this label, these are not wines to miss out on and I highly recommend getting on the Farm Cottage mailing list as soon as possible!
($42 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive