David Bruce Winery has earned an international reputation throughout its nearly four decades for its dedication to producing the greatest pinot noir in the world.

Passport Days

Dates:	Third Saturday of the Month January, April, July, November
Time:	11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

History and Innovation
In pursuit of this goal, the winery has adhered to traditional European winemaking practices that trace their lineage back to the early pioneers of winemaking in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Clara Valley. David Bruce Winery has also been at the forefront of efforts to develop innovative new methods that have changed the face of winemaking in California.

Grape Sourcing
Today wines are produced from the winery's 25-acre mountain estate vineyard and from fruit sourced from more than 20 of the best growers in Northern and Central California. The breadth and diversity of grape sources has long given David Bruce Winery experience creating a broad range of wines and firmly established the winery as one of the leading premium winemakers on the international stage.

Founding of David Bruce Winery
The winery was founded in the remote Santa Cruz Mountains in the early 1960s and was one of the first of a new generation of wineries that would lead a modern resurgence of premium winemaking in the region. Founding the winery was a young dermatologist named David Bruce. Although raised in a teetotaler family, David discovered wine while a medical student through his interest in food and cooking. After completing his medical residency, he purchased 40 acres of land above the fogline in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He cleared the land himself and planted the vineyard by hand. At the time there were only one or two other working wineries in the region. During the first 25 years of the winery, David divided his time, maintaining a fulltime dermatology practice in Los Gatos and running the winery, until his retirement from his medical practice in 1985.

Pioneering Achievements
For David, the urge to make fine wine has always included a need to understand how fine wine is created. His combination of passion and scientific curiosity has led to pioneering efforts, now legendary, that have contributed to both the industry's evolution and the quality of David Bruce wines. His work with the diversity of California grapes and winemaking techniques made him one of the first winemakers since Prohibition to produce a "Blanc de Noir," a white wine from red zinfandel grapes, and to introduce "late harvest" wines. David was also one of the first winemakers to put white wines through a secondary, malolactic fermentation; a California pioneer in the use of whole-berry fermentation in making red wines; one of the first California winemakers to import French oak barrels; and an early advocate of foot crushing, extensive skin contact, small-barrel fermentation, and rotary tanks.

Honors and Awards
David Bruce Winery was one of 12 California wineries to participate in the now famous 1976 "Judgment of Paris," in which California Cabernets and Chardonnays outscored French Bordeaux and Burgundies in a blind tasting in France. Since then, David Bruce wines have consistently taken top honors in competitive tastings. Most recently, the 1997 Central Coast Pinot Noir ranked in the Wine Spectator "Top 100-The Most Exciting Wines of 1999."