Full Belly Files | Climbing Up to Coastview Vineyard

Sam Smith examines his chardonnay block at Coastview Vineyard.

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It’s not just winemakers who are attracted to mountaintop sites in the middle of nowhere, as I described in this story about Ojai Mountain Estate, which ran in yesterday’s paper. I’m guilty of the same, and I’d bet that many of you are equally fascinated by what stories and scenes can be found on remote properties along dead-end roads in forgotten corners of the world.

The ability to access such sites under the guise of journalism was one of the main reasons I dove into exploring Santa Barbara wine country in the first place way back in the early 2000s. It was a primary motivation for doubling down on that work a decade ago when Wine Enthusiast convinced me to be a critic for the entire Central Coast, and remains the most rewarding part of the job, satisfying a childlike sense of exploring unknown lands.

This path opened the doors to vineyards I’d never known existed, often in places that are incredibly challenging to farm and just plain hard to get to, from the tips of the Santa Cruz Mountains to the desolate canyons of the Cuyama Valley. One such site that captivated me when I started reviewing wines way back in 2014 was Coastview Vineyard, which sits at about 2,300 feet in the Gabilan Mountains, high above the Salinas Valley.

Back then and now, the 25-acre vineyard, which was planted in 1999, is primarily used by the Santa Cruz Mountains–based winery Big Basin, whose owner Bradley Brown offered to take me there over the years. But our stars never quite aligned for such a visit, though I’ve continued to be impressed by the chardonnay, pinot noir, syrah, and Bordelaise blends that he makes from the vineyard. (Coastview is also a critical part of the rise of Ian Brand, who’s become a Monterey County powerhouse, but that’s a longer story for another time.)

Last week, as I was up in the Santa Cruz area with my family for the annual golf tournament we host in honor of my late father, I was coordinating a catch-up with Sam Smith of Samuel Louis Smith Wines. Sam is one of the most impressive winemakers that I’ve come across in my career as a critic, and I even gave him one of the only 98-point scores I’ve ever awarded, for his 2021 pinot noir from the Pelio Vineyard. (You may remember Sam from this September 2021 Full Belly Files and the Pelio property as part of this feature about the proposed Carmel Coast AVA.)

When Sam suggested Coastview, I stupidly balked, thinking it was too much more driving after a long week of long drives from from Hollywood to Cuyama to Santa Barbara to Aptos. But then I realized it was less than 90 minutes from my mom’s house, that I had to pick up my brother from the Monterey airport that afternoon anyway, and that this was probably the least amount of driving that I’d ever have to do to visit the vineyard.

Sam invited me there to show off the site, but he was actively being a vineyard-focused winemaker as well. I followed him down the rows as he checked for the quantity of grapes, the ratio of leaves to fruit, where they were in the season, and whether any issues, like mildew, were popping up. He explained that a lot of big decisions must be made during the grape’s natural “lag” period, between cell division and cell expansion, and the healthier clusters become more evident as they start changing color from green to gold and red.

So come Wednesday, we’re meeting at Alma’s Bakery in Chualar, where I dropped my truck and hopped in Sam’s. About 30 minutes later, we’d ascended a sketchy dirt road from the valley floor — elevation: about 100 feet — to the grassy, 2,000-foot-plus peaks that surround Coastview. While nearby mountains sport rougher, green-brown patches of chaparral, the ridges around the vineyard are historically grazed meadows, glowing a brilliant gold in the midday sun.

He does this sort of inspection at each of the many vineyards he works with every six weeks during the growing season. He believes that rate is far more frequent than most negociant winemakers like him — a k a those who don’t own their own vines — tend to spend at sites. “You could argue that it’s excessive,” said Sam, “but I like to know what’s going on.”

Samuel Louis Smith wines atop Coastview Vineyard

Sam’s focus is increasingly on mountain-grown grapes, from Coastview to Pelio to Spear Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills and a few different properties in the Santa Cruz Mountains, above where he lives in that city’s Seabright district. He also makes some wine from lower elevation spots in the Santa Lucia Highlands, specifically Escolle and Double L, the latter owned by Morgan, where he was winemaker for eight years until this past spring. He considers those vineyards to be mountainous as well, since they’re located on the bottom flanks of the Santa Lucia range. Those peaks dominated the skyline from atop Coastview, where the views extend from nearly King City all the way to the Monterey Bay.

Sam’s elevated experience is shedding light on the tendencies of a mountain site. The season tends to start a little later because it stays cooler longer at elevation, but then everything speeds up, due to the constant sunlight above the marine layers. “During the last couple weeks before harvest, things move very quickly,” said Sam, explaining that ripeness comes quicker and tannins can resolve faster.

We ended our visit by popping open Samuel Louis Smith bottlings of chardonnay, gamay, pinot noir, and syrah, which were chilly at first but warmed up quickly in the hot summer sun. They were refreshing rewards for our sweat-streaked, row-walking efforts atop this nearly inaccessible site. It’s an effort not many winemakers are willing to exert, especially at a Sam Smith clip.

“Unless you’re super into making mountain wine,” admitted Sam, “it makes zero sense.”

At least it makes perfect sense to me.

See samuellouiswines.com.

Coastview Vineyard overlooks the Salinas Valley and the Monterey Bay, with views from nearly King City to Watsonville as well as the entire Santa Lucia Highlands appellation across the valley.

Off to Spain & France

A family shot from San Sebastian during our first family trip to Europe six years ago

If all goes as planned, I’m currently dodging squirt-gun-shooting locals in Barcelona right now, with plans to visit Maury, Bordeaux, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, San Sebastian, and Bilbao with my family for the next couple weeks. That means I’m taking the next two Fridays off from this newsletter, which will be back on August 23, likely with a detailed report of our European adventure. If you’d like to follow along in real time, I’ll be posting photos with some regularity at instagram.com/mattkettmann.

Goodbye to My Screwy Friend

My reliable Ventoux corkscrew and the Samsara bottle that ended its 6,500+ bottle career.

After opening more than 6,000 bottles (and possibly upward of 7,000) with this Les vins AOC Ventoux corkscrew that I got from Hospice du Rhône back in 2022 — the conservative math on that is an average of 250 wines per month, but usually more — this Samsara Wine Co. “Lotus” pinot noir from 2022 is what finally made my old, reliable friend snap. The wax was a little tough but mostly fine; it’s just that the screw was getting tired and weak.

The fitting parts are that Samsara winemaker Matt Brady is the one who introduced me to Hospice when he was the winemaker at Jaffurs Wine Cellars back in 2011 (I wrote about that here and here), and that, as explained above, my family is off to Spain and France this week, although no plans to visit Ventoux. Cheers to a career well spun!