Sante Arcengeli Family Wines
Sante Arcangeli Family Wines - Tasting Room and Pescadero
About
Sante Arcangeli Family Wines are carefully handcrafted Burgundian varietals that have been gently nurtured from rare mountain-grown fruit to a new life as elegant and expressive California Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. We offer flights of 4-6 wines from the current release in a rustic, comfortable, informal atmosphere. Usually you’re tasting wine with Luke, our assistant winemaker, or owner/winemaker John Benedetti. It’s a rare experience tasting wine with the people who made it. Unpretentious, fun and a beautiful day trip from anywhere in the Bay Area.
Location Description
Our tasting room is located at 216-A Stage Road in historic Pescadero, CA – next to Duarte’s Tavern and Made in Pescadero, the furniture store.
Features
- Elegant and expressive California Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Additional Information
- Meeting / Conference Facilities:
- Caves:
- Wedding Facilities:
- Picnic Facilities:
- Dog Friendly:
- Winery Tours:
- Wine Tasting:
- Art or Architecture:
- Organic / Biodynamic:
- Awards:
- Wine Club:
- Lodging / Bed & Breakfast:
Winemaker
History
The children were Louise, Livia and Alfredo, and the business later became known as Arcangeli Grocery Company (aka Norm’s Market), a world-famous bakery and gourmet market, at the hands of Sante’s grandson, Norm Benedetti (my dad) and my mom Shirley. It’s now owned by Sante’s great grandchildren, my brothers, Mike and Don.
I decided to name the winery after my Great Grandfather as a means of honoring all those in my family who came before me and provided me with the tools to do what I love to do.
Why the backstory?
Well, a byproduct of all of this was a wine cellar under “the store”. My dad began laying up some pretty sought-after French and California wines in the 70s, and turned me on to wine somewhat early in life. When most people my age were content with Natty Lite or Pabst, I was acquiring a taste for 20 year-old Chateauneuf du Pape. Problematic for a college kid on a college kid’s budget. The solution: start making my own. Why not, right? I mean, I lived smack in the middle of one of the best Pinot Noir growing regions on the planet. And, thanks to constant exposure to fine food and wine, I acquired a knack for making things taste good at a very early age.
I still believe that knowing your target is the single most important step toward making anything taste good. That means, in this case, enjoying great wine made by others almost constantly. Rough gig.
Estate Vineyards / AVA
We are extremely fortunate to be able to produce pinot noir from Lester Family Vineyard, located between 400 and 500′ elevation on Pleasant Valley Road in Corralitos, Santa Cruz Mountains. Pleasant Valley is the bucolic jewel of the Corralitos region, and is perfect for pinot noir. There’s a strong maritime influence here, 5 miles inland from the Monterey Bay. Morning fog gives way to moderate temperatures during the day, allowing the fruit to stay relatively cool during the prime growing season, which allows for long hangtime and optimal flavor development.
The vineyard is the showcase vineyard for noted viticulturist Prudy Fox, and it shows. Meticulously managed, sustainably farmed, with minimal input given. No herbicides, deficit watering and careful canopy management yield fruit that is consistently some of the best available in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The upper vineyard is planted to Dijon clones 115 and 667, with the lower vineyard planted to heritage clones 2A (Wadenswil), Swan, 23 and Mt Eden. Soils are predominantly sandy loam.
Hicks Vineyard, Corralitos:
Located on Pleasant Valley Road in Corralitos and farmed by Prudy Foxx, Hicks Vineyard, while not yet CCOF-certified, is essentially organically-grown. Sitting on a sandy bench just 5 miles from Monterey Bay, Hicks Vineyard sees the same cooling maritime influence that makes Pleasant Valley so… well… pleasant for Pinot Noir.
Planted to clones 667 and 115, wines from Hicks Vineyard have a vivid backbone of baking spice, with bright high notes over a luxuriously structured body.
Mardikian Vineyard, Sonoma Coast:
The southwestern-facing hillside vineyard, just four miles from the Pacific Ocean near the town of Freestone, is planted to two handfuls of clones: Swan, Dijon 667, 777, 114 and 115, 2A (Swiss), 15 (Martini) and 4 (Pommard) and each clone has its own 1-acre block. Planted in 2009, its first harvest was in 2013. Mardikian is the estate vineyard of our close friends at MacPhail Family Wines and is the result of a close collaboration between winemaker James MacPhail and grower Jim Pratt. Mardikian has the rare distinction of overlapping 3 very coveted appellations: Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley and the Green Valley of Russian River Valley sub-appellation. We choose to designate it as Sonoma Coast, due to the extremely cool climate these magnificent grapes are allowed to thrive in.
Mardikian will be offered as part of our 2014 vintage, with clones 777 and Martini making up our 5-barrel lot. We couldn’t be happier about this.
Split Rail is our signature vineyard.
Planted on an old lake bottom that got pushed up to 1700′ in Corralitos (Southern Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, home of Windy Oaks & Alfaro), with dramatic views of the Monterey Bay, the former Split Rail Vineyard was a longtime standby for David Bruce and Clos La Chance. The soils are gray sandstone and clay, with a limestone vein down deep. This spectacular mountain-top is where the warm east wind from the valley meets the cool ocean breeze in summer, evident by the combination of giant Madrones (hot, dry climate) growing alongside mammoth redwoods (cool coastal climate). Approximately two acres of this mountaintop vineyard is planted to Pinot Noir, with “David Bruce Selections”, Champagne clone 32 (aka UC Davis Clone 32) and Pommard making up the bulk of the planting. The rest of the vineyard is planted to Chardonnay clone 4, with a light mix of French clones 95/110R, 76/110R and 809/110R; all of which benefit from the long Corralitos growing season, which is cooled down by the ocean breeze blowing off the summer Aptos fog 5 miles and 1700′ down below.
David Bruce Selection is an old field selection consisting of Mt Eden Clone, Martini Clone, Wädenswil and Pommard (see below), and is one of the original Pinot Noir selections grown in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. Some of the original cuttings of Mt Eden Clone are reported to have been brought over from Chambolle-Musigny, on the prized Côte de Nuits, France, in the 1890s by Paul Masson, and were then planted by Martin Ray in the 1950s at his estate vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains (now known as Mt Eden). Many wineries, including Chalone, David Bruce & Williams-Selyem have made great use of this unique field selection of clones, which, as a group, are known for their delicacy and floral aromas, and which Robert Parker has described as “silk & lace”.
Champagne clone 32(DNI), which was grafted to Freedom rootstock, brings a rich earthiness to the mix, with hints of plum jam, black cherry, clove and redwood humus. The lower half of the vineyard was recently grafted over to Pommard clone 4. These clones make up the perfect clonal blend for the old world, delicate Pinot Noir we strive to make here at Sante.
Chardonnay from Split Rail vineyard expresses crisp minerality and a Burgundian nature that balances fragrant hibiscus, pineapple and pear aromatics with hints of granite to form the backbone of clean, austere Chardonnays.
About Clone 32 (quoted from Capazzo Winery):
UCD 32 was sourced originally from a vineyard in Ay, across the Marne River from Epernay…It is sometimes said that the original vineyard sources of these clones were Roederer’s own Champagne vineyards, but viticulturalists at Champagne Louis Roederer cannot confirm this claim. Allowed to ripen fully, it gives complex wine, saturated with dark fruit nuanced with jam, tar, and leather.”
About David Bruce Selections
From Rusty Gaffney:
[David Bruce Clone] “represents any number of Pinot Noir selections of undetermined clonal origins. There is no FPMS certified David Bruce Clone. The term, “David Bruce Clone,” has become common parlance among winegrowers for selections taken from David Bruce’s plantings in the Santa Cruz Mountains, or cuttings from other vineyards planted with David Bruce’s estate vineyard budwood.
David Bruce was determined to produce Pinot Noir when he acquired 40 acres of vineyard land in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1961. Only Martin Ray was making Pinot Noir in that region. Bruce obtained the cuttings used to plant his vineyard on Bear Creek Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1962 from two sources: (1) The increase block at Wente’s Arroyo Seco vineyard which only contained certified clonal stock including Pommard, Martini and Wädenswil, and (2) Martin Ray’s vineyard at what is now known as Mount Eden (the exact origin of these vines is unclear except that apparently they were a field selection from Burgundy brought into the United States in the 1890s by Paul Masson). At the time, winegrowers were not clone conscious, so Bruce would not have chosen a particular clonal type, but rather some “Pinot Noir vines.”
The vines Bruce obtained from Martin Ray are probably different from the vines selected in the early 1970s by Merry Edwards, sent to Davis for clean up and FPMS certification, and eventually became the Mount Eden clone. At least one of the so-called Swan clones also came from Mount Eden.
Pierce’s Disease destroyed Bruce’s vineyard in the early 1990s, and the last Estate Pinot Noir produced from the original vines was 1992. The Estate Pinot Noir program was resumed in 1996 after the new plantings matured. The newer plantings cam from Noble Hill Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which had originally been planted with cuttings from Bruce’s original vines. So, in essence, Bruce got his own vine selection back (albeit some of it could have mutated) when he replanted. (Editor’s Note: Split Rail Vineyard, planted by Bruce’s vineyard manager Greg Stokes in 1986-1991 with the same selection as the Bear Creek estate vineyard, was not affected by Pierce’s disease and those original estate clones exist to this day at the Corralitos site. Split Rail was considered part of David Bruce’s “estate” during estate bottlings in the 90s due to his partnership with the land owner and the clonal selections that he planted there).
Vines in California planted with cuttings taken from Bruce’s estate vineyard therefore represent a field selection and the vines should properly be referred to as David Bruce selections.”