With harvest underway for Santa Cruz County-area wineries, Laurie Love finds growers of pinot noir enthused about what they’re seeing so far. She also scopes out Madson Wines’ fall releases, spotlights a company putting wine in paper bottles, reveals her wine of the week and more.
Laurie Love
Laurie Love is a professional wine educator and writer based in Santa Cruz, where she has lived for 34 years. She shares her wine passion, knowledge and experience with Lookout readers as Lookout’s wine correspondent. Laurie specializes in French wine and the Santa Cruz Mountains American Viticultural Area (AVA), our local appellation that has been making world-class wines for more than 140 years.Laurie’s background is wide-reaching. She teaches wine classes at the Cabrillo College Wine Program and for Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Global. Laurie also wrote the course content for online wine education website,wine-ed.com, a companion to the Cabrillo College Wine Program. She teaches private wine classes and leads private tastings. For the past several years, she’s been a Santa Cruz Mountains AVA contributing writer for the Slow Wine Guide USA, featuring wineries that are sourcing from sustainable vineyards. In addition, she works locally in wine production with Bottle Jack Wines in Santa Cruz.Laurie holds several professional wine certifications: WSET Level 3 with Distinction, French Wine Scholar with Highest Honors (FWS), Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) and sommelier, in addition to earning three Cabrillo College wine certificates. She is currently a candidate for the Bourgogne master-level certification through the Wine Scholar Guild. You can follow her wine blog, laurieloveswine.wordpress.com, and on Instagram at @LaurieLoveOnWine.Laurie is thrilled to join the Lookout team and to share the bounty of our local wine region with Lookout readers.
Introducing Lookout wine correspondent Laurie Love: Fall harvest, Bargetto turns 90, nebbiolo in Santa Cruz
In the launch of Laurie Love on Wine, meet Lookout’s new wine correspondent, get an update on harvest and vineyard conditions, find upcoming Santa Cruz County wine events, check out her wine of the week and brush up with Wine 101.

