The Scheid Family is Monterey's largest family-owned grape grower and winemaker.
At the very least, their grapes are used by many of the region's leading wineries.
The Scheid Family is one of the few wineries in the United States that has its own wind power generation facility and is also committed to sustainability.The Scheid Vineyards series is a rare wine that can usually only be purchased by visiting the tasting room.
<Limited Quantity> Merlot is finally making a comeback.
After years of being mistreated, Merlot now walks confidently onto your table and in your glass, bursting with red fruit, gentle tannins and an approachable softness.
It opens with aromas of fresh wild berries and spices, followed by smooth flavors of blackberry, black cherry, plum and boysenberry, framed by gentle acidity and lightly toasted wood aromas.
Full-bodied and refreshing, the flavors of berry pie fill the mouth, culminating in a long, enticing finish.
This wine is perfect for vegetarians and also goes well with hearty beef dishes.
Merlot is knocking on your door right now.
In 2019, grapes were used from two of our own vineyards, San Lucas and Hacienda.
San Lucas Vineyards is located south of the winery in Greenfield.
The days here are long and warm, but once the sun goes down it cools down dramatically, with large temperature differences between day and night.
This gives it a fresh blackberry fruit flavor and a soft mouthfeel.
The Hacienda is our home vineyard, located right next to the winery in Greenfield.
Cool temperatures and afternoon breezes give the wines balanced acidity and spice notes.
The result is a beautifully balanced wine with rich, full-bodied fruit flavors and subtle spiciness and woodsy hints.
Monterey's 2019 vintage was a consistent one, typical of the region.
After the predicted rain, the growing season went smoothly and was mild with no sudden increases in temperature.
Over 50cm of rain fell throughout the season, coinciding with the bud burst and flowering period.
This naturally limits the yield.
Harvest began in early September under ideal conditions, with little rain and mild temperatures.
Mild temperatures and naturally low yields produced fruit with impressive depth of flavour.
California recorded its worst drought since 2013 in 2019.
Upon arrival at the winery, the grapes are destemmed, crushed and fermented in 1.5 ton open-top fermenters.
Punchdowns were performed twice daily for two weeks.
After gentle racking, the wine is barrel aged for 18 months in 95% French oak and 5% Hungarian oak.
It's great to drink now, but will taste even better with further aging.
Scheid Vineyards founder, Al Scheid, first purchased 15 acres of land on the outskirts of Greenfield, California in 1972.
At the time, wine grape growing was in its infancy in Monterey County, but Al was attracted to the region's winemaking potential.
So they consulted with Professor A.J. Winkler, an authority on grape cultivation at the University of California, Davis, who had created a climate region distribution map for grape cultivation in 1960, and gradually purchased land within Monterey County, which covers regions from Region I to Region IV, and planted grape varieties suitable for each region.
Founded by Al, Scheid Vineyards grew steadily and continued to grow with the addition of his son Scott in 1986, grape growing specialist Kurt Gornick in 1988, and his daughter Heidi in 1992.
The company now owns 12 vineyards (totaling 1,600 hectares) in the Salinas Valley, which stretches 112 km from north to south, from Region I to Region IV.
The company also built a state-of-the-art winery with a production capacity of 1.8 million cases, as well as a smaller winery for handcrafted wines, and continues to produce world-class Monterey wines.