Digital Interactive Map Created in Partnership with Green Infrastructure Design to Enhance Visitor Experience
February 3, 2026 (Aptos, CA) — The Santa Cruz Mountains Heritage District has unveiled a new digital interactive map designed to enhance the visitor experience throughout the region. The Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association, in collaboration with Green Infrastructure Design (GID), developed the custom map to help visitors navigate the area’s unique geography and plan winery visits more easily.
“We recognized that we’re a unique region with a particularly challenging geography,” said Keikilani McKay, executive director of the Santa Cruz Mountains Heritage District. “This map is designed to help visitors plan winery visits, create custom itineraries throughout the region, and discover winery experiences that fit exactly what they’re looking for.”
The Santa Cruz Mountains Heritage District encompasses wine producers across three counties—Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and San Mateo—spanning the Santa Cruz Mountains American Viticultural Area (AVA). The district includes both downtown tasting rooms and wineries with tasting rooms perched along the region’s mountain ridges. The widespread footprint and winding mountain roads can pose challenges for wine tasters, and the new interactive map aims to simplify discovery and itinerary planning for regional wine tasting.
The digital interactive map is accessible on the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association website and app and is designed for easy navigation, allowing visitors to view distances between wineries. The interactive platform enables users to see their real-time location on the custom-branded map, explore curated descriptions of each member winery, access winery websites for current information, and receive turn-by-turn directions while exploring the region.
The Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association administers the Santa Cruz Mountains Heritage District program, which is funded through an assessment fee. The fee supports regional marketing, tourism, and economic development initiatives that strengthen the overall Santa Cruz Mountains wine brand. The Heritage District is designed to benefit all wineries within its boundaries, regardless of current or past association membership. The assessment went into effect Jan. 1, 2026.
About the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA
Overlooking the renowned Silicon Valley, the Santa Cruz Mountains is a winegrowing region where high tech gives way to high altitude. Where the mountains and Pacific Coast converge, more than 70 wineries and nearly 300 small growers produce wines shaped by the elevation and the ocean’s cooling influence. It’s a place where soaring cliffs drop into the sea, steep mountain vineyards overlook idyllic small towns, and tradition meets innovation. Shaped by its unique terrain and a maverick mindset, the Santa Cruz Mountains is a wine region for independent spirits with a taste for the extraordinary. For more information, contact the Wines of the Santa Cruz Mountains at (831) 685-8463, contact@scmwa.com, winesofthesantacruzmountain.com, on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.
