02/05/2026
The first time we met Ryan and tasted his wine was at a trade tasting about two years ago. He was by himself at his booth with only 2 or 3 wines to show, and while wasn’t exactly the most famous winery at the tasting (no offense!), I couldn’t stop thinking about their Trout Gulch Pinot Noir after the tasting. I liked it so much that I told Jordan that we should order some for our wine list, and from that day on, we’ve been huge fans!
Since then, Ryan has come all the way from Santa Cruz to LA to do two separate wine dinners with us, and both times were huge hits. Jordan and I got the idea to bug Ryan about making a wine for us, and to our surprise, he agreed to it!
Say hello to the Yang Farm Santa Cruz Mountains 2024, our new house red by the glass! The wine is made from incredible Pinot Noir from a few different vineyards in Santa Cruz that are all thoughtfully farmed by the Alfaro’s, including , Trout Gulch Vineyard, and a few others.
The wine from each vineyard was fermented separately using gravity rack and returns to extract the cap (no pumps), made with 85% whole cluster, blended together prior to bottling, aged in neutral wood, and finally bottled via gravity on 8/17/25. This is a beautifully made wine that complements food, and definitely punches above its weight! Come and try for yourself, and take a few bottles home while you’re at it!
To cap it all off, my parents and I went on a trip to visit Ryan & his family in Santa Cruz, and we discovered that the Alfaro’s are some of the nicest, most down-to-earth folks we’ve ever encountered. They treated us like old friends, made us dinner and shared wine with us, and we all had an incredible time. Do yourself a favor and visit Alfaro Family Vineyards if you’re around Santa Cruz on a Saturday, or try their wines if you see them around! (the Alfaro and Farm Cottage wines are separate labels — Farm Cottage is Ryan’s personal expression of his winemaking style)
Shoutout to & .jpg for designing the awesome label dedicated to Meeah, the Shiba Maggie and I fostered over the last few years (RIP!)