The parking lot of the David Bruce Winery on Bear Creek Road above Los Gatos was nearly filled on Saturday afternoon: something I’d not seen in 26 years. Club members, wine lovers and media had come out to partake in a day-long celebration of David Bruce Winery’s participation in the Judgment of Paris in 1976.
Gathering on the sunny decks overlooking the estate vineyard, they tasted some of the latest releases, including a 2023 David Bruce Estate Anniversary Chardonnay, poured from a specially decorated magnum commemorating the 50th of the event that spurred the meteoric growth of the California wine industry.
A table inside the tasting room showcased some of the old wine bottles, their labels tracing the evolution of the brand, along with a photo of the good doctor himself, taken in the cellar.
As he poured the ripe and rich orchard fruit-laden 2022 Estate Chardonnay, winemaker Mitri Faravashi told me that Dr. Bruce started out liking very European style wines, but grew partial to the ripeness and fruit-forward nature of California. He often picked at 25 to 26 Brix—and this wine was no exception.
A riesling fan, Bruce was known to embrace the botrytis that can occur in drawn out harvest seasons. In fact, the 1973 David Bruce Chardonnay (that placed last in the Chardonnay category in the 1976 tasting) was intended as a late harvest style, which the judges arguably did not understand.
Faravashi indicated he’s moving towards a leaner, lower-alcohol style, and has begun picking the estate fruit at 20 Brix instead of 24+, and is also reducing the time in oak. The result is quite dramatic. The 2023 Estate Anniversary Chardonnay shows precision, linearity and purity, concentrating on fruit freshness.
Similarly, beginning with 2023, the pinot noir bottlings are also reflective of this style, with less alcohol and ripeness, and better oak integration.
Among the four pinot noirs available to sample on the party deck, the 2023 Santa Lucia Highlands Hillside Vineyard Clone 115 Pinot Noir, showed forest floor, mushroom, distinct tart pomegranate and a graceful vein of acidity.
A personal favorite of Faravashi’s: the 2022 David Bruce Chalone Pinot Noir, sourced from Michael Michaud’s vineyard in the blanched hills east of Soledad—home of alien looking rock formations called The Pinnacles. Michaud, who was twice winemaker at Chalone Vineyard, briefly shared a tasting room in downtown Saratoga with Michael Martella, founding winemaker at Thomas Fogarty Winery. Michaud now grows grapes exclusively to sell to other winemakers, including this David Bruce clone pinot noir. The generosity of this wine’s mouthfeel is outpaced only by its persistent streak of acidity.
In contrast, the 2022 Estate Pinot Noir, evidenced the heat-spike induced ripeness of that vintage here in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Chalone vines are used to intense heat.
In a twist of good fortune, Dr. Bruce took some of his estate budwood down to Chalone to Dick Graff in the late 1970s to plant a block in that unique terrain. When phylloxera wiped out the David Bruce estate pinot noir vines on Bear Creek Road in the 1980s, he was able to get cuttings from the vineyard block at Chalone.
Although nothing remains of the vintages of the 1970s, the winery does have a few bottles of both cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir from 1988, as well some 1992 cab, and 1991 and 1999 Estate Pinot Noir. Faravashi then led me to the cellar to barrel taste some of his forthcoming wines, where we found the remnants of the earlier Anniversary tasting featuring older bottlings. Among them were three vintages of Ranchita Canyon Zinfandel (1994, 1995 and 1997).
I glanced at the notes left behind by those lucky club members. They had their clear preferences. Clocking in at 13.9% ABV, the 1988 Estate Pinot Noir was allegedly one of the Doctor’s favorites, and was replete with acid, damp earth and old coffee, but it was still hanging in there. It was not a big winner with the earlier crowd, though.
Faravashi noted that, as time went on, Dr. Bruce began to pick later and later, and the alcohol content crept higher. Thankfully, the 1999—at 13.7% and made by Tony Craig and Ken Foster—was showing beautifully, with rye bread, mushrooms, sour cherry, baking spice, and caramel-laced coffee cake. It was, as Faravashi remarked, “the final hurrah of the old days.”
There may be bottles of these treasures still available. Call the winery to inquire.
