Sandar & Hem’s Santa Cruz Mountains chardonnay pouring at Grand Tasting

The Santa Cruz Mountains winegrowing region is worthy of the moniker “Pinot Paradise,” but if Robert Bergstrom of Sandar & Hem winery has any say in the matter, he’d like to extol the virtues of the area’s chardonnay.

Sandar & Hem is among the wineries pouring at the Santa Cruz Mountains Grand Tasting Sunday, April 24, at The Mountain Winery in Saratoga.

Sandar & Hem is a nod to Bergstrom’s ancestral roots in the Sandar region of Norway, a fjord south of Oslo. Hem was the family name that somehow got changed to Bergstrom when his great grandfather emigrated to the U.S.

Bergstrom, who grew up in Napa and has a Ph.D. in biophysics (his father taught chemistry at UC Davis), and his wife, Recha, who hails from Santa Cruz, have day jobs: She’s a UCSF -trained radiologist and he’s a former McKinsey consultant working with small startups in the Bay Area. Both are passionate about giving back to the community, but it’s the winery that lights them up.

Sandar & Hem currently makes vineyard-designate chardonnays from Bald Mountain, Bruzzone, Frances J, Le Boeuf and Mindego Ridge. Bergstrom became aware of the age-worthiness of Santa Cruz Mountains chardonnays when tasting Mount Eden and Ridge from the 1990s, along with a 60-year-old chardonnay from Martin Ray.  Their intensity and power reminded him of the richness of 1980s white Burgundies.

“They have high acid at the same time and a spaciousness, like you’re in a field of flowers; they’re really experiential wines,” Bergstrom says of the Burgundies. “I saw that Santa Cruz Mountains chards could age like that.”

After receiving a winemaking certificate from UC Davis in 2016, Bergstrom subsequently worked a harvest at Rhys and then in the vineyard and cellar at Mount Eden.

“It was the chardonnays of Rhys from Horseshoe and Alpine Vineyards that really opened my eyes and made me realize this was a world-class place to produce chardonnay comparable to, but distinct from, white Burgundy,” he says. “This is a place where chardonnay could hit incredible highs with stunning expressions. These are the wines that pushed me to the next level to explore winemaking in the region.”

Many vineyards were chosen due to their history of producing great wines, but new sites like Deerheart, a pinot noir vineyard on Alpine Road near San Gregorio, have caught Bergstrom’s attention. With climate change impacting where pinot noir can grow, Pescadero is of interest as well.

“We love telling the story of chardonnay and all its unique expressions across the yet-to-be-formalized subregions of the AVA,” says Bergstrom. “We believe that our intense focus on chardonnay makes us distinctive as a winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains. That said, I love crafting pinot noir.”

Bergstrom also makes cabernet sauvignon and grenache from Bates Ranch, a storied vineyard in the southern part of the AVA. He’s also found merlot and cabernet franc in the Los Altos Hills for a Bordeaux style blend.

Sandar & Hem has vineyards on steep Purissima shale on Mindego Ridge on Alpine Road), Franciscan shale at Peter Martin Ray in Saratoga, decomposed granite at Le Boeuf near Santa Cruz, and white Zayante sands at Bald Mountain in Bonny Doon.

“Le Boeuf was planted in 1974 on St. George Rootstock, and we have rebudded half of it over to heritage clones due to intense Eutypa,” Bergstrom says of the fungus that causes grapevine dieback.

“Both Mindego Ridge and Deerheart Vineyard have the very rare clone 943 with tiny berries and intense color and flavor,” he adds. “Bald Mountain is own-rooted, and Peter Martin Ray is planted to Mount Eden cuttings originating from La Questa vineyard in Woodside, which was planted with wood from Chateau Margaux.”

Having the right people in those vineyards is critical, says Bergstrom. “We work with the fantastic Prudy Foxx and Ken Swegles at several of our sites, both fully dedicated to the region and true viticultural excellence.”

Tickets to Sunday’s Grand Tasting are $68 ($20 for designated drivers) at https://winesofthesantacruzmountains.com/events.