Holman Ranch – Carmel Valley, CA

The last stop in California after winding through the Pacific Coast Highway was an overnight stay at Holman Ranch.  It’s unbelievable how driving twenty minutes can result in such a drastic change in scenery.  It was shocking, really.  We pulled off to the side of the road to overlook a town filled with rolling, green hills and vineyards in every direction.

We picked up our keys at the tasting room and drove down a quaint residential road to get to the ranch.  As we pulled up to the entrance, we were greeted by a deer that seemed to enjoy staring at us equally as much as we enjoyed staring at her.  We entered the ranch, drove through an equestrian scene of horse stables and a jumping arena, and arrived at Guest Room #08, our home for the night.

We settled in and freshened up before meeting with Holman Ranch’s Nick Adams for a tour through the closest vineyard and the winery.  Nick’s family is the fourth to take ownership of the ranch since its opening in the 1920s.  And although many updates have been made to the property, Nick pointed out that his family has taken special care to maintain the historic integrity of the site, whether it be through re-using the existing barrel roof tiles when re-roofing the hacienda {as fragile as they may be} or restoring the large, exposed wood beams at the ceiling rather than replacing.

And since I’m construction gal by day {and a LEED AP!}, I couldn’t have perked up more when Nick began talking about Holman Ranch’s farming practices and how they are a SIP {Sustainably in Practice} certified vineyard. Simplified immensely, SIP certification verifies the farmer meets minimum water and energy conservation standards, upholds water and air quality standards, and uses organic pest control measures.

I was pleased, but not surprised, to find out that all of the wine we’d be drinking throughout the evening would also be certified organic wine. Not just wine made with organic grapes, organic wines are free of chemicals from farming through production. That means no sulfites either!

Nick went on further to define the style of their wine as old world and un-messed with, contrary to most California wines that are notoriously over-produced.  I felt an immediate fondness to the phrase un-messed with as it aligns so well with my food philosophy.

This was the first winery tour where we given the opportunity to sample wines in various stages of the fermentation process.  I especially enjoyed tasting an early sparkling wine at a time when its acid content was extremely high.  Tart as tart could be, I could not drink more than a few sips.  But it was an interesting experience, nonetheless.

My favorite {for real} wine of the evening was the chardonnay.  Shocked because I’m not typically a white wine drinker {unless it’s a blanc}, I was really impressed with this wine’s crispness and subtle hint of pear {which I recognized only after another guest pointed it out}.

Unfortunately, I had a flight out of LAX the next day and didn’t have much time to take advantage of every amenity the ranch had to offer.  I did, however, have time to send a picture of the conference room to my boss and ask if we could have our next strategic planning meeting at Holman Ranch {an event that the ranch is perfectly equipped for}!

Disclosure: Although Holman Ranch kindly hosted us, the opinions in this post are completely my own and based on my experience.