Passport Days for Wineries of the Santa Cruz Mountains

Great way to check out wineries, especially the ones that do not typically have their doors open to the public. Good to get an early start, only happens X4/​year!

I was pleasantly surprised by this event since I only heard about wineries in Santa Cruz recently and had no idea that they were located so conveniently next to each other unlike the Napa wineries.
It’s a bit pricey to begin with, $ 40/​passport, but you get probably at least 20 – 30 wineries that you will likely be able to go to within the time limits of the passport day (they are specific days for these events equating to about 4 days a year) and most of the wineries are next to /​near each other which makes it easy for you to hop from one to the other.
There are even wineries from the Saratoga /​Cupertino area such as Ridge which has a fantastic wine tasting experience. It’s very cool since many of these wineries are ONLY open those 4 days to the public for tasting. We picked up a few great white wines (I have yet to be enticed by any red in the colder regions of CA) at very good prices last year. It makes for a fun day.
Your passport never expires, so you can keep on tasting until you finish all the wineries!

Visit some of the best wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains (and vicinity). Four times a year these wineries open their doors for tastings — some of these wineries are not generally open to the public (Neumann, for example).
The pass is normally $ 40, but some wineries will sell it for cheaper. There is a great map inside. Another plus, is that some of these wineries you will visit will have Passport Day-​specific tastings or purchase specials.
The downside is, unlike Napa, some of these wineries take some effort and time to get to. Windy roads, and all. I mean there are places that are waaaaaaay out in the boonies (Zayante in particular, takes a while to get to). I usually have a hard time visiting more than 5 places on Passport day.

Passport weekends are always fun! We only made it to a few wineries as we were visiting friends in the area during the weekend as well. Lots of small friendly wineries, my favorite was Cooper-​Garrod, they have a horse area there, so random! Only in the S.C. mountains I tell ya.

The Passport Days occur four times a year and for $ 40 (I got mine when it was only $ 25), you can go tasting at the participating wineries at ALL future Passport Days. There are dozens of wineries spread out from the penninsula down to Aptos and near Hollister, so it will take you years to even hit up the different areas. Some wineries are only open on Passport Days, so be sure to visit a few of them.
At each winery, you get a stamp for your Passport booklet. You are only supposed to visit each place once but I’ve gone multiple times to a few wineries and they’ve all given me another stamp.
The biggest downside is transportation. Most of the wineries are in the mountains so it is best to have a sober driver for the day to navigate the twisty roads.

Fun event encouraging winery hopping – can’t find much wrong with that! :-) A big shout out to recent Unilocaler Nicole C. for planning out our journey and driving us to each safely.
Highlights:
— It’s nice to have a map and directions and descriptions of all of the participating wineries in the passport booklet.
— Unlike I thought, it’s not only Santa Cruz wineries – there are participating ones all over the area: Cupertino, Los Gatos, Aptos, etc.
— It’s a good deal ($ 30) if you go to wineries that have larger tasting fees.
— Some wineries only taste on these days so it’s nice to take advantage of this opportunity to do so.
— Your passport is good until you complete it, so you can go back for other passport Saturdays to visit other wineries.
— It’s fun to collect stamps. :-) Some wineries have fun stamps too. My fave is the Equinox one. Pictures are attached here.
Lowlights (my flip side to highlights):
— Not all wineries keep enough in stock: we had to go to a couple to find enough for the 3 of us.
— Not really worth it if you’re just going for a day of tasting at Santa Cruz wineries: most of these have a super low ($ 3) or no tasting fee already.
— Since it’s an event, it can be more crowded but until we got to the end of our journey of the SC wineries, we didn’t really run into mass amounts of people. Guess the smaller wineries are less crowded.
— Not all tasting rooms are at wineries so if you’re into the views and the vines, plan it out accordingly.
— Only 4 times a year, so if you want to fill up your passport, you’ll need to wait a few more months. Next one’s in July!
I’ll be back to fill out my passport. Next time I’ll try a different area. What fun!