Home Feedback Contents Search

Muns Vineyard

Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir


 

 

News & Events
Vineyard Seasons
Vineyard
Wines
Who We Are
Order Wine
Wine Club

Muns Vineyard on Facebook

Muns Vineyard Pinot Noirs win Best of Appellation Gold Medals from AppellationAmerica.com.
2004 Muns Vineyard Pinot Noir:  Gold Medal
2005 Muns Vineyard Pinot Noir:  Gold Medal
2006 Muns Vineyard Pinot Noir:  Gold Medal

Harvest 2009              Blog

        
                             1/2 ton bins on tractor              ---------------------- Gorgeous Pinot noir clusters ----------------------                       

     
            Night before harvest                     Crew picking       Ed moving 1/2 ton bins

   Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noirs:

A Special Mountain Vineyard,
Special Mountain Pinot Noir

Muns Vineyard brushes the sky on a ridge above Monterey Bay at 2600 feet.  This is the highest vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a prime growing region for this luscious winegrape.  We enjoy the coastal climate of the mountains, with cool fog lapping at our feet in the summer, gentle breezes and maximum sunlight -- perfect for growing premium Pinot Noir.  Moderate days and cool nights, along with diligent personal attention in our 13-acre owner-operated vineyard, produces fruit with rich and complex flavors.  We have blended Dijon clones 114, 115, 667 and 777 to provide a fruit-forward, complex and well-balanced wine.

Minimal intervention in the winery allows our unique terroir to shine.  Barrel aging in 30% new oak for about 16 months adds soft tannins that accentuate, but not dominate, the beautiful fruit in this special wine.  The wine drinks well now and is a delicious complement with food, and will bottle-age for years to come.  Enjoy 'heaven-in-a-bottle' from our ridge top vineyard above the bay!

Events

Please join us to taste our high mountain Pinots

As we do not have a tasting room, you can find us at the following events which are good opportunities to taste our wines.
You can then purchase from us directly or from any of a number of specialty wine shops that carry our wine.

bulletSaturday, January 16, 11:00-5:00pm:  Vino Locale for Passport Day.  Ed and Mary will pour our Muns Vineyard Pinots at Vino Locale in Palo Alto.  Vino Locale is a European-inspired enoteca and gallery in Palo Alto in an historic old Victorian just off of University Avenue - very warm and inviting.  Owner Randy Robinson is a long-time proponent of the Slow Food movement, and Vino Locale reflects his support of local food, wine and art.  Please join us!  Vino Locale is also a wine shop and you can buy our Muns Vineyard Pinots there any time.

Vino Locale
431 Kipling Street
Palo Alto
650-328-0450
 
bulletTuesday, January 19, 5:00-7:00pm:  Tasting Room Tuesday at California Cafe, Los Gatos.  We will be pouring our wine at this weekly tasting featuring local wineries.   Chef Taylor Boudreaux pairs the wine with delectable appetizers! $15 per person, and $10 will be applied to your check if you stay for dinner.
 
bulletTuesday, February 9, 5:00-7:00pm:  Tasting Room Tuesday at The Fairmont Hotel, San Jose.  Muns Vineyard is kicking off a series of wine tastings in the hotel lobby featuring Santa Cruz Mountains wineries. Mary will be pouring a vertical of our Pinots. Come and relax after work with some great wine, good food from the lobby menu, and music. Tasting fee applies. 
 
bulletSunday, March 28, 2:00-5:00pm: Pinot Paradise, Grand Cruz Tasting at the Villa Ragusa Conference Center in Campbell.  Ed and Mary will pour our Muns Vineyard Pinots for the first time this year at this annual celebration of Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noirs. Tickets are available from the SCMWA.
 

News

bulletMuns Vineyard Pinots are featured in a story in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, with recipes from local vintners  - including Mary's now famous recipe for pan-roasted Brussels sprouts, that pairs deliciously with our 2004 and 2005 Pinot Noirs. 
 
bulletHam Radio Creates a Vineyard! - Ed is quoted in the 17 October 2009 article in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, "Amateur Radio Operators on Front Lines During Loma Prieta Quake".  Although Ed wasn't one of the active hams helping with that local disaster, the article notes that the property that eventually became the current Muns Vineyard was selected for ham radio purposes by Ed.  The first day of land clearing for the home occurred on 17 October, 1989, the day of the destructive Loma Prieta Earthquake, whose epicenter was just five miles south of the property.
 
bulletRead about Muns Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Sentinel (September 12, 2009), in an article about the 2009 harvest.  It includes a number of photos of harvest at Muns Vineyard.
 
bulletRead about Muns Vineyard in the San Jose Mercury News.  Laurie Daniel, about Pinot Paradise: "The 2006 Muns Vineyard Pinot Noir ($40) is dark and spicy, with black cherry, clove, cola, a hint of sage and firm structure."
 
bulletRead about Muns Vineyard in the March 15 issue of the Prince of Pinot's PinotFile newsletter.  The Prince reviews our 2004, 2005, 2006 and as yet unreleased 2007 Pinots. About the 2007, the Prince says,

"A consistent Muns Vineyard style is beginning to evolve with this wine which shows similarities in structure and character to the 2006 vintage. This wine exhibits admirable complexity with nicely spiced red and black fruits, herbs, forest floor and mocha. There are still tannins to shed, but these are ripe and fine and will integrate nicely with a little more bottle age. The acidity is spot on. This should prove to be a very stellar wine. (Note: this wine can be purchased now at the futures price of $32 which makes it a good value)."

 

 

Says Rusty Gaffney, the "Prince of Pinot", about the 2005 Pinot Noir from Muns Vineyard in his PinotFiles newsletter:

"The 2005 vintage in the Santa Cruz Mountains was on the 'weighty' side and this wine shows the bold structure of the vintage.  Again, the aromatics are enchanting, featuring bright cherries, spices and ginger.  The velvety texture alone is worth the price of admission.  Perfectly balanced and thoroughly enjoyable."

"I visited and walked Ed's vineyard and I found it to be one of the more pristine vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  No question in my mind that this vineyard will be producing some remarkable Pinot Noirs for many years to come."

 

  
 --------------  paintings by W.M. Vinci, inspired by Muns Vineyard  --------------


Well-traveled Pinot ... enjoyed on a sailboat in Croatia!
(Thanks, Dave Aslin, for purchasing at Gene's Market
 in Saratoga and taking to the Mediterranean for vacation.)

Our Wine List

Pinot Noir

2004  120 cases produced.  Our first bottling, this wine shows fresh, bright fruit, characteristic of the new vineyard.  This wine continues to develop beautifully in the bottle, flavors melding and deepening.  Delicious!  $40

bulletGold Medal, Appellation America 'Best of Appellation' Award

2005  180 cases produced and released in March 2007.  $40

bullet91 Points, Wine Enthusiast
bulletGold Medal, Appellation America 'Best of Appellation' Award

2006  360 cases produced and released in June 2008.  $40

bullet Gold Medal, Appellation America 'Best of Appellation' Award

2007  150 cases produced and released in Fall 2009.  $40

Rosé of Pinot Noir

2007  70 cases produced and released in June 2008.  $15

2008   40 cases produced and released in June 2009.   $18

 

Vineyard

We grow premium Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir with exquisite attention to quality so as to produce the very finest wine.  The wines we produce reflect our high standards in the vineyard, as well as one of the best locations for growing Pinot Noir in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a prime growing region for this luscious winegrape.   The first commercial vintage was in 2003 based on a half-ton harvest.  Soquel Vineyards blended half of the wine into a Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir and the other half was bottled under the Muns Vineyard label.  Grape tonnage increased rapidly in succeeding years:

2004:    About four tons were harvested from four acres and again the wine was produced by Soquel Vineyards.  125 cases were produced as a Muns Vineyard designate under the Soquel Vineyards label and another 125 cases under the Muns Vineyard label.

2005:   Almost twelve tons were harvested from six acres with five tons going into the Soquel Vineyards label as a Muns Vineyard designated wine.  The other seven tons went into a Muns Vineyard designate wine on three labels produced by Silver Mountain Vineyards: Silver Mountain Vineyards, Sonnet Wine Cellars and Muns Vineyard.  Tony Craig, of Dave Bruce fame, made these three wines.

2006:   Nearly 24 tons were harvested from seven acres with 10 tons going to Soquel Vineyards and 14 tons crushed at Silver Mountain Vineyards for the same three labels as in 2005.  This was an abnormally large yield, as it was for many California vineyards, due to abundant winter rains that produced record cluster sizes.

2007:   Fruit set this season was been superb, but nature presented some challenges.  Two nights in April produced 25 degree temperatures a large low area of the vineyard where over a acre of fruit and even some vines were lost.  Later in the season, dehydration further reduced the crop.  Over 16 tons were harvested on 4-6 September all going to Silver Mountain Vineyards for production under three labels: their own, Sonnet Wine Cellars and Muns Vineyard.

2008:   This is the first year all vineyard blocks are producing--twelve acres of Pinot Noir and one acre of Syrah.  Pinot Noir was harvested from 29 August to 2 September, our earliest.  The yield is our lowest ever at around 1.5 ton/acre.  Vineyards across the state are reporting much lower cluster weights, so while it looks like there is a lot of fruit, there really isn't.  3 tons of Syrah was harvested the third week of September.

2009:   This looks like 2006 in terms of yield.  With the entire vineyard now producing, we estimate 30+ tons of Pinot Noir and 3+ tons of Syrah.  The Pinot should harvest in mid-September with the Syrah ready at the end of September.

Contact Information

Telephone
408-515-2663
FAX
408-353-6107
Postal address
Post Office Box 1877, Los Gatos, CA 95031-1877
Electronic mail
General Information: info@munsvineyard.com
Sales: sales@munsvineyard.com
Customer Support: support@munsvineyard.com
Webmaster: webmaster@munsvineyard.com

horizontal rule

[ Home ] Feedback ] Contents ] Search ]

Send mail to webmaster@munsvineyard.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 1999-2006 Muns Vineyard
Last modified: 20 August 2009