Four decades, great wines

BY: Sasha Paulsen spaulsen@napanews.com Updated Oct 27, 2016               Read FULL ARTICLE HERE

"Wine tasting in Santa Lucia Highlands of Monterey County: Long-time vintner Steve McIntyre met us, a traveling group of wine writers, in his vineyard. He pulled up in his pick-up truck, jumped out, opened the tail gate and rummaged around for glasses to give us tastes of his McIntyre rose of pinot noir, chardonnay, and pinot noir....

...And he is also the owner of Monterey Pacific vineyard management company that farms 12,000 acres in Monterey County.

McIntyre has also been a pioneer in sustainability. A founding member of the Central Coast Vineyard Team, he was one of the originators of SIP—Sustainability In Practice—certification program. The McIntyre Estate Vineyard was among the first properties in the Santa Lucia Highlands to be SIP-certified. Sustainable wine grapegrowing, he said, “is part of a ‘big picture’ philosophy that takes into account fiscal, social and environmental issues. To earn a SIP certification, growers are evaluated on everything from human resource management to habitat conservation.

“’Green’ is more than a catch phrase here,” McIntyre said, adding that conscientious viticultural standards, whether organic, biodynamic, or sustainable, have long been the norm.

Was it just my imagination or could we taste the sea wind, the morning fogs and mountain air in the wines? Probably imagination. But either way, the wines were fresh, balanced, elegant and delicious...."