Dooniverse Moves to Davenport

Until last year, a highlight for Santa Cruz wine tourists was to visit the Bonny Doon tasting room and restaurant in Santa Cruz's mini wine ghetto. Until last year. The tasting room closed. The restaurant closed. And Dooniversians were left adrift with no experience to share with the world of Randall Grahm.

That's all changed with the opening Thursday of the new Bonny Doon tasting room - in Davenport. Davenport? The trendy Davenport Roadhouse, a restaurant and inn north of Santa Cruz, with a commanding view of the ocean from this village on a bluff overlooking the Pacific is in Davenport. Bonny Doon's new spot is conveniently located across the street from the roadhouse. It's open Thursday through Monday from 11-5.

So if you need to buy a pumpkin down there (there are lots of pumpkin farms in the area), you could definitely make a detour...

Bonny Doon no longer farms as much organic or biodynamic vineyards as it once did. Though most of the 35,000 case production is now devoted to purchased (and chemically grown) grapes, you can still find a few good bottles from vineyards the winery once farmed biodynamically - Syrah from Chequera, the Ca' del Solo Nebbiolos, Le Cigare Blancs from Beeswax, the Ca' del Solo Muscat (dry not sweet and only $120 for a case in the closeout special), the sparkling wine Riesling to Live, the Picpoul, the Banana Slug Roussanne (named for the UCSC mascot - the banana slug), and the Viognier. Enjoy.