Friday, May 3
5:00-7:00PM
Vine Street
$15 ($5/club)
Ryan Alfaro is back at Vine!! But this time, he's popping corks on his very own bottlings: Farm Cottage Wines. You may know Ryan --or at least recognize his last name-- as here at VB we've been longtime fans and purveyors of Alfaro Family Wines. Ryan grew up on the vineyard his parents planted in Santa Cruz Mountains was thus truly primed to become a winemaker but he had to come to it in his own time.
In the midst of his undergrad education at UCLA, the vines called, and Ryan escaped to Dijon, France through UC Davis' exchange program. After graduating, he continued his schooling getting a Post-Grad in Wine Science at University of Auckland. With some worthy experience under his belt, Ryan returned home and started working for his dad at the family winery. Today, Ryan acts as head winemaker at Alfaro while his dad works the vineyards.
Farm Cottage grew out of an opportunity Ryan had to work with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Trout Gulch, a lauded 16-acre, dry-farmed vineyard near Aptos. Ryan makes some very serious Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Trout Gulch and beyond and prefers whole cluster fermentation for his Pinots. The name of his label is an homage to the building Ryan calls home, a small cottage on the vineyard that his grandparents lived in before him.
Come chat with Ryan and taste his delicious, dynamic Santa Cruz wines.