History
Who & What Is
Trout Gulch Vineyards? By Bernie Turgeon, 1993 “In 1984 Bernie
Turgeon and his son, Gerry, sold the Turgeon & Lohr Winery to their partner,
Jerry Lohr. After twelve successful years the winery had become too large to
personally manage with any real enjoyment. In pursuit of creating something
of quality in a bottle they founded the SANTA CRUZ BREWING COMPANY and the
FRONT STREET PUB, one of the pioneer brew pubs begun in California since
Prohibition. It was founded with
the philosophy of maintaining easy hands-on personal involvement. Once their
beers were locally (and nationally) accepted as quality products, and the
Front Street Pub had become a Santa Cruz landmark, they had time to turn
again to their first love – WINE. With the
knowledge that the Santa Cruz Mountains has historically produced great Pinot
Noir & Chardonnay, they purchased the Miller Ranch above the seaside village
of Aptos. They renamed this gently sloping twenty-five acre mountain meadow
TROUT GULCH VINEYARDS. At an altitude of 700 feet the vineyards has the
advantage of warm days and cool nights ideal for achieving the ripeness and
low pH necessary for fine Pinot Noir & Chardonnay. Trout Gulch Vineyards
are further blessed with a large pond filled by mountain springs filtered
through layers of Purisma marine sandstone. The long growing season, though
scary and very risky, gives Trout Gulch some of the best wine grapes in
California. The
Turgeons and their partner Don Harris have augmented the existing vineyard
with new plantings and graftings. Trout Gulch Vineyards now has twelve acres
of Chardonnay and seven acres of Pinot Noir. In 1993 we harvested in third
week of October. This is long after most California vintners have already
begun fermenting their wines. The harvest yielded 8 tons of Pinot Noir at an
average sugar of 25°Brix, 3.23 pH, and 1.1 total acidity (grams per 100 ml).
30 tons of Chardonnay were harvested at 23.3°Brix , 3.1 pH, and 1.0 total
acidity (grams per 100 ml). The juice was clean and smelled of good fruit. To
a winemaker these are beautiful numbers. Our award
winning 1990 Chardonnay is a truly classic wine. It has the crisp pH given to
it by the Santa Cruz Mountains Appellation with subtle vanillin and toasty
oak flavors. Above all it has true Chardonnay character. This wine won a Gold
Medal at the 1992 Orange County Fair and was judged Best of the
Chardonnay Variety in the San Francisco Bay Area Region at the California
State Fair. In 1993 it won a Silver Medal at Jerry Mead’s
International Wine Competition, a Silver Medal at the San Diego Wine
Competition, a Bronze Medal at the San Francisco Fair, and a Bronze Medal at
the Los Angeles County Fair. Our soon to be released 1991 Chardonnay is a
wine of light oak with nuances of green apples and tropical fruit, and of
course, true Chardonnay character. This wine has a refreshing crispness in
the mouth and is excellent on the table with food due in part to the
naturally low pH. The 1990 Pinot Noir also has a nice low pH for a red wine.
It has an aroma and taste of Bing cherries and black raspberries with subtle
oak in the bouquet and long finish. It has already won a Silver Medal at
the National Orange Show, a Silver Medal at the Orange County Fair, and a
Bronze Medal at the Riverside Farmers Fair. Each year our Pinot Noir
vines get older and stronger. We get closer to that HOLY GRAIL of great
California Pinot Noir. Each years’ wine will show how close we are…” More Bio: Bernie Turgeon planted 300 acres of
grapes on the Arroyo Seco, Monterey County, in 1972 and co-founded the
TURGEON & LOHR WINERY with partner Jerry Lohr. Bernie sold the winery to
J. Lohr in 1984 but retained his interest in Greenfield Vineyards. Bernie,
along with his son Gerry, established the SANTA CRUZ BREWING COMPANY &
FRONT STREET PUB downtown Santa Cruz in 1985. In 1988 Bernie started TROUT
GULCH VINEYARDS with Gerry & partner Don Harris. The vineyards are
planted on a twenty-five acre, southeast-facing, gently sloped mountain
meadow at an altitude of 720 feet above sea level. The vineyard is also
within 4 miles of the Monterey Bay coastline (Pacific Ocean) and within a
mile of the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake (7.2 Richter) and
lies entirely within the SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS appellation (AVA). The climate
offers warm temperate days and cooling coastal nights. The fruit matures
slowly and ripens evenly during the long growing season resulting in grapes
that are generally picked ripe in mid-to-late October. These conditions
contribute directly to what we believe to be finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
grapes grown in California. TROUT GULCH VINEYARDS was founded on the credo
that “Great Wines can only come from grapes with the same pedigree”. |
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All Rights Reserved. Last Modified:
Saturday, 02-Jul-2005 13:00:35 PDT