Wine tasting at Cooper Garrod

If there’s no wine at home, it only means one thing — its time to head to a winery! And a little wine tasting would do no harm. Why go far away when the Santa Cruz Mountains are just a stone’s throw from where we live. This time we chose to go to Cooper Garrod up on the eastern slopes of the mountains. We’d driven past this place some months ago and had promised ourselves that we would drop in there soon. And there we were.

When we turned onto Garrod Road and drove towards the winery and ranch, it felt like we were in the countryside, for there in front of us were wooden cabins, stables and horses.

The first thing that came to sight when we got out of the car, was some riders riding up a hill to the vineyards up there. Although we knew we couldn’t do that eco-ride into the vineyards (as we have a little one who not only disqualifies for a vineyard tour but also the pony rides that (bigger) kids can do here), it was a welcoming sight.

The second thing that caught my eye was the sign board that directed visitors to the tasting room.

Fruit House/ Cooper Garrod’s Tasting Room

We then walked past a few stalls and horses and then walked into the Fruit Room, Cooper-Garrod’s tasting room. There friendly people (some of them from the family that owns the winery and farm) treated us to five different wines. This time my taste buds caught up with some Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Test Pilot.

And when we walked out of there, we took with us a bottle of Cooper Garrod’s signature Test Pilot, a name probably inspired by wine-maker George Cooper’s stint with test piloting for NASA before he retired to a life of vineyards and wine.