Nicholson Vineyards Winery

Since moving to the Bay Area three years ago, I have visited many wineries. One of the first ones I ever went to was Nicholson, and though I have visited many since then, Nicholson remains the best. Not only is the wine (all of it!) far superior to most I have tasted at other wineries, the atmosphere is unbeatable. Small and family-​run, the winery has a casual, personal feel. The recently-​renovated tasting area is beautiful while maintaining the personalized, friendly feel. Since it’s a little bit of a hike from San Fran to Aptos, we hoard our bottles of Nicholson, only drinking them on special occasions. My only wish is that I could find the wine closer to home!

Their Chardonnay is amazing! Very fruity and up-​lifting. The vineyard is small, but beautiful. Occasionally, you’ll see some peacocks.

Great wine, great environment great staff!
Enjoyed a wonderful time talking wine with the staff and other visitors. We ended up buying a case to have and share.
This is a hidden gem.

I live in LA but grew up in Watsonville– it is great to come home and experience all these wonderful vineyards in the area–
The wine here is comparable to those you find in Napa, Paso and Santa Barbara!
We enjoyed this one so much we became members!!!

Just called animal control. The daughter of the owner let four of her dogs loose which charged my 11 month old son playing on the grass. This is a business open to the public and this should not have happened. I sprinted to scoop up my baby son playing idylly on the grass. Terrible horrendous experience beyond words.

There are tiny ads for this winery in the local mags and not any signage, but people find it! I went to secondary school with the owner, so I really wanted to make a visit (and he was out of town!!!). We were so glad we went. It is tiny and oh so sweet. Has chairs and picnic tables outside to enjoy the lovely surroundings. The wine is good, but i’m a white winer and it’s almost all reds. We ran out of time to visit the other three in the area, but so happy we made this one a destination!!!

We originally had planned to drive to Napa but decided to try the Aptos, Santa Cruz region after reading great reviews of the wineries in the region. We were pleasantly surprised finding this lovely place. It was a gorgeous day in January. We did the tasting of 5 or 6 wines. I love Pinot Noir and they had other delicious selections as well. My only regret is that we had not thought to bring any snacks and none were available. Wish we could have bought some bottles but since we were traveling and flying it was not feasible. We had a great time & made wonderful memories. I highly recommend this winery.

Now one of my favorite vineyards and I live near Sonoma/​Napa so I’v been to a lot! We had a bachelorette party of 10. Nicholson owners and staff were super accommodating and friendly and we were a bit of a raucous crowd. The wines are all delicious. We tasted all but 2 on the tasting menu. The hardest part was deciding which bottle to bring home! Don’t miss the unoaked chard and the pinot cuvee!

Capitola Art and wine festival 2014– my family and I were shocked and appalled to say the least after purchasing a taste from this vendor. A lady storms out the back of the tent demanding we take my crying baby somewhere other then behind her tent. Because he was unpleasant and nobody wanted to hear him! (We had been there no more then one minute;off the street;away from the festival!)
She made me feel just awful over a situation I had no control of. Sorry this is the Family friendly Capitola village.
As for the wine… Sour like the taste that lady left in my mouth

Had an amazing experience at Nicholson Vineyards at the recent «Pinot Paradise» tour of Santa Cruz mountain wineries. The atmosphere is perfect for small-​large groups, with lovely sprawling vineyards and olive groves. We were able to try 5 different wines, including an incredible unlabeled zinfandel that they brought out just for our group to taste. The staff was very knowledgeable and welcoming; I would visit again in a heartbeat.

I was beach bumming it one day and decided I wanted to go wine tasting. I found Nicholson Vineyards on Unilocal and decided to make the trek up the hill. It was my first time in the Pleasant Valley area and was amazed to discover such a beautiful region. The drive to Nicholson takes you down a narrow one lane road passing miles and miles of rolling hills with vineyards. It happened to be an event weekend when I showed up so they had a nice cheese platter and desserts out for guests. There’s several little nooks for sitting and sipping the afternoon away.
Must try wines (all are great, but these stood out):
2010 Old Vine Zin
2009 Pinot Noir

We, my husband and I went for the first time to Nicholson vineyards, recommend by Mother, who I met at a nail salon in San Jose. Will us living in the Santa Cruz Mts., We decided to give it a try on passport day. Great vineyards, wonderful red, Pinot Noir, Old Vine Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon were our favorites. A wonderful own family vineyard, and very welcoming family. Hope to become a yearly member, and so glad not to have to drive to fare for great wines.

Excellent family vineyard and featured accompaniments. A total ruby hidden on the west side of the Santa Cruz Mountains…
Enjoyable environment for dates and getting ataste of the local flavor… Forget the Boardwalk, pay the Nicholsons a visit!

Great find… beautiful location, delish wine, they even had a nice assortment of food! But mostly the people (employees, owners, students) were all so nice and friendly! We could have stayed there all day!

I genuinely enjoyed my visit to Nicholson Vineyards. They were extremely friendly and welcoming hosts. You could see that they enjoyed meeting people and sharing their wine. Overall, I thought the wines were mixed. We tried 2 Chardonnays, a Pinot Noir, Syrah, & Zinfandel. They were pretty good but for the prices ($ 25 – 40), I wasn’t blown away. The tasting fee is $ 10. Even though they comped a couple fees I thought it was a little steep considering the area & wine quality.
We tasted amongst the barrels. Just outside there was a grassy area with a garden and vineyards. My dog was having an awesome time playing with their Australian Shepard. I’m glad I went here but I’m not sure if I’ll return.

Well I thought the whites were pretty terrible. I just moved on to the reds. But I usually don’t care much for white wine. The tasting is outside so be sure to hide in the shade of the nearby trees. It is a cute little winery but there is better wine not too far away

I went to this winery this weekend and I adored it. The people there were friendly, it’s beautiful there — the vineyards grow all the way up to the pouring area, and the wine was truly tasty. I did the $ 10 tasting and was prepared to shell out a chunk of change for their old vine zin. When I realized that the delicious wine was only $ 32 a bottle, I became a member and left with a few bottles.
This place is definitely worth a stop when you’re in the area. I liked it much better than Alfaro (which was also more expensive) and the people here were MUCH nicer than at Alfaro. Of course, I also liked Windy Oaks (also in the area), but Nicholson was my absolute favorite.

This was a pleasant surprise. Such a quaint winery! Good wine, great people pouring it. It was really beautiful, if a little bit small. But, it was such a great contrast from the ultra-​snobby wine country. It was a truly beautiful there and the weather was perfect. This place is definitely worth trying out. And the wine was priced well. I’ve been to numerous wineries in Napa, Sonoma, and now Santa Cruz and this was the first place that actually inspired me to become a member! I’ll definitely be back!

It was a breezy day in Aptos when a group of us planned to come to Nicholson Vineyards to do a wine tasting thanks to a coupon that a friend won.
Unfortunately, her car broke down and everyone in the group except for the BF & I stopped by to give her a jump. We were well on our way to the vineyard by being stuck in traffic on 17. Sadly, it wasn’t her battery but something else and when we found out, we had arrived at the beautiful winery.
There’s a tiny sign telling you to enter a tiny dirt road next to rows and rows of grapevines. Follow it down to a small parking lot and you’re there!
We ended up tasting without our friends and they were super nice to explain things to us. Loved the Old Vine Zinfandel (which I was surprised with since I don’t care for Zin at all.)
It’s a great place to pick up a few noms (maybe at the Corralitos Market) and sip some wine. And Josie is an adorable sun-​basking dog.
Once the group arrived (finally!) about 2 ½ hours later, we had a wonderful tasting experience and pooled together to buy ½ a case of the Old Vine Zinfandel, which is their only future release that they were tasting.
I can’t wait to pick up the bottles next month!!!

Decided to hit a couple of the Corralitos Wine Route vineyards on a recent trip to local wineries. In the past, the wineries were only open on Vintners and Passport Weekends, so it was nice to see them open.
On this trip, we hit two of the four. Nicholson was the first. A small family vineyward with a very personable staff, the grounds are quite pretty. In fact, they rent the grounds out — there was prep work going on for a wedding later that day.
The winery charges $ 10 /​person for tasting a flight of 6 wines. Of the six, they were all decent. The early tasting of their Old Vine Zin shows promise, but it was also still young. The Syrah and Pinot were also good.
The group of us that went are considering the grounds for an event. They charge $ 1600 for 8 hours. Which is quite reasonable.
I remember when the Santa Cruz Mountain wineries didn’t charge for tasting. Unfortunately, most have started charging. Thankfully, they will usually apply the tasting fee to a purchase. As of this time, Nicholson is not doing so.