Farm Cottage 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon, Bates Ranch Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains

The Farm Cottage 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon from Bates Ranch opens like dusk along the ridge—blackcurrant first, then red plum and a brush of bay laurel. Cedar shavings and a quick flicker of graphite rise as the glass turns, the kind of detail that feels born of elevation, not embellishment. Alcohol sits comfortably at 13.7%, and you can feel that restraint in the way the aromas read clean and precise. 

On the palate, the fruit is measured and sure of itself. Dark berries move in an even arc across the mid-palate before narrowing into tannins that feel chalk-etched rather than bulky. There’s a cool edge—mint, fennel frond, the suggestion of redwood dust—that keeps the finish long and clear. It drinks like mountain Cabernet that knows where it’s from.

That “where” is a story worth telling. Bates Ranch sits at the southern end of the Santa Cruz Mountains, a historic four-generation site planted in the early 1970s. The Cabernet grows high—around 2,100 feet—on a steep southeast 30% slope, dry-farmed in well-drained silt with streaks of iron-rich, decomposed volcanic material. Those particulars matter: they tighten the frame, deepen the spice, and lend the wine its mineral seam. 

Bates has been Cabernet ground for decades—its own label has bottled the variety for over forty years—so this fruit carries lineage as much as flavor. That continuity shows up as confidence in the glass: nothing forced, nothing padded, just a vineyard with long memory speaking in a fresh year. 

2023’s release for Farm Cottage feels like a first-chapter moment—a new label working with a revered site. Early notes from local shops and clubs place the wine squarely in the SCM idiom: ripe enough to feel generous, structured enough to feel serious. Pricing in the high-50s tracks with that positioning—a mountain Cabernet built for the table and the cellar, not just the shelf. 

If you want to taste the site, give it air. Roast lamb with herbs, grilled porcini, or a simple steak will meet it halfway, but the wine doesn’t rely on pairing to show itself. It unspools steadily—fruit, spice, stone—then leaves a clean echo.

Farm Cottage 2023 Bates Ranch Cabernet—altitude in the structure, coastline in the finish, history in the middle.