Maurice Car’rie Winery

Ultimate Vineyards produces wines almost exclusively from its 75-Acre estate vineyard, where a unique combination of geological and topographical features deliver fruit with extraordinary intensity, weight and voluptuousness. The vineyard rests in the bed of the ancient Santa Margarita River, where sediments carried downstream have been accumulating for millennia. The vineyard also sits in a geological bowl, where heavy cooler air drifts and settles during the night, helping to retain higher acid and tannin in the grapes. Ample amounts of sunshine interspersed with gentle ocean breezes help develop deep color and sugars in the grapes. The soil is mostly sandy loam, consisting of excellent drainage but low organic matter due to the area’s low rainfall. With the goal of creating “Living Soils”, Ultimate Vineyards has been actively cultivating its soils with the use of annual organic compost amendments, inoculation of beneficial microbes and planting nitrogen-fixing cover-crops. The belief is that developing a flourishing, healthy ecosystem in the soil will allow for better vine growth, more even ripening and higher quality grapes. In order to attain this, Ultimate Vineyards never uses pesticides, herbicides or fungicides on its soils.