The small McHenry winery in Bonny Doon started in the 1970’s and produced wonderful PN. Henry and Linda McHenry split their time between Davis, where Henry was a professor, and the SCM’s for many years before the winery was turned over to the next generation, Annie and Brandon. Unfortunately their winery and local residence were destroyed in this year’s fire. Their vineyard was saved.
Henry and Linda were the second generation. UC Santa Cruz Dean, Dean McHenry was the founder, so they’re in their third generation. The house Dean built(?) survived, but another house and the winery were lost, as well as the two vintages in the winery (some allusion that a tiny amount of the unreleased but bottled '18, presumably the family portion, was out). The vineyard itself got singed, but not significantly damaged other than the unusable grapes.
It’s their wine that inspired Randall Graham to plant next door and borrow their unofficial vineyard name for his label. Both were devastated by Pierce’s Disease. Randall didn’t replant, they did. In the meantime they made a pair of Pinots for several years from another SCM site and a Carneros vineyard.
The latest WineSpec came out w/ their review of Calif PinotNoir this week. A lot of the usual names & suspects.
But one thing really struck me…there was only one SantaCruzMtn PN reviewed. Seems like a huge oversight.
Tom
I am a huge Santa Cruz Mountains fan and this is going to take a whole lot of time.
So many names not yet mentioned on the thread.
Fogarty
Storrs
Zayante
and dozens of others.
I can dumpster dive for my notes on the Mount Eden Cabernet charity tasting that Mark Golodetz put on a couple of years ago, graced by Jeffrey and Ellie Patterson. Just amazing wines from an amazingly fresh 1973 to an infantile 2005.
Wow what a party. I would have loved to be there. Fran actually delivered my copy to me when I lived in Cupertino. She stayed for a glass of wine but couldn’t stay for dinner. Ran into her at many events at Ridge. Classy lady and very approachable. One of many people that make this hobby so fun and rewarding.
Dave’s daughter is Krista Bennion Feeney, and is a very accomplished violinist or violaist back East, NY I think.
She played at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival some 20 yrs ago & I visited after an open rehearsal. I recounted the first time I met her Dad up on MB Ridge (therein lies a tale) and it brought her to tears. Not too long after Dave died.
Fran’s roommate at Stanford was a casual friend of mine in SantaFe. Fran & Eric would often come to SantaFe for music events in the Summer. Eric was an architect and designed their home below the lower wnry & I think he still lives there.
Tom
I think Fran lives there, too (or did). My friend Rich Gibbons, who just passed away, used to go to dinners there back when Dave was still alive. Rich was a long time helper for fun at a lot of the local wineries over the years. Too modest to pry much detail out of, but he worked with Martin Ray, Ridge, Cronin, Testarosa and probably others, and was a founding partner of La Crema Vinera with Rod Berglund. I met him formally when he came to the Cronin memorial dinner I organized (one of the non-forumite Cronin fans Richard Jennings brought), but I recognized him from his pouring at Cronin open houses. If you went to a Swan open house, he poured you wine.
Wes,
My understanding from Marilyn Reisen is that Fran re-married and moved down to PaloAlto where her husband lived. But I think Eric still lives up there. Haven’t heard otherwise.
Tom
From my understanding, Fran used the Montebello property as a weekend home, but also maintained a residence in the valley below. After Dave passed, Fran married Tony, a fellow musician. Before she passed, she and Tony lived in a retirement community in Los Altos. Eric now maintains the Montebello property and splits his time between there and SF.
Ohhh, Ryan… didn’t realize Fran had passed. I really liked her… very down to earth & caring person. Had a great visit with her over lunch at Donn’s Memorial Service.
Tom