EDIBLE: Albatross Ridge honors a legend and a love for cool-climate Pinot.

California quail scuttle across the lonesome road as it curves through a 1.5-mile rise to picture-book Albatross Ridge Estate, nested between Carmel Valley Road and Laureles Grade, reaching as high as 1,250 feet, with views that run 7 miles to the sea. Wild turkeys make cameos in the golden fields. Turkey vultures spiral above. Muscular red-tailed hawks take thermocline rides looking for prey.

Another winged thing gives the small family-owned Carmel Valley vineyard its name – and much of its substantial karma – but it’s no bird. And something else entirely gives it a soaring reputation, despite the fact it’s been just a few years since the label launched, with limited means and production. (Two thousand barrels this year is the most, and the max, for the foreseeable future.)

That winged thing: A glider made mostly of paper, piloted by a man named William Hawley Bowlus. Bowlus was far more famous for work designing Airstream trailers and as superintendent of construction on Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, but he loved tinkering with experimental gliders, or sailplanes, and became the first American to break an Orville Wright record for time aloft.

In fact, Bowlus, the late father of vineyard operations chief Brad Bowlus and grandfather of winemaker Garrett Bowlus, used to bomb his Albatross aircraft off the cliffs of Carmel Valley.

Only when Garrett and Brad discovered this elevated patch of earth, they had no idea of their family’s link to it.

They’d been actively searching for four years across Oregon and California for a site with the soils and setting to do cool-climate Pinot – a place where, as Garrett says, “We could grow the type of wine we like to drink.”

But it wasn’t until they had already planted the vineyard (starting in 2008), and were considering what to call it, that they cracked open a history book of Carmel Valley. On the very last page they learned that Soaring Hall of Famer Hawley Bowlus, as he’s known among glider geeks, used this very area to lift off.

Suddenly they had a name for the nascent vineyard. Something cosmic uncorked. “Everything fell into place,” Garrett says.

The fact that the adventure theme fit with what they were doing – uncommonly lean and mineral-rich Pinots and Chardonnays that fly in the face of traditional California styles – worked nicely too.

And while the backstory was as solid as the estate’s diatomaceous, limestone and shale ground (which meant tedious and time-consuming staking of the vineyard by hand), what really helped the label rise was its cult love among some of the area’s most forward-sniffing sommeliers.

Former Weekly wine writer and certified somm Paul Wetterau (now operations director of Casanova), Sierra Mar sommelier Sarah Kabat-Marcy and Aubergine wine mind Nathaniel Muñoz all flagged it when I asked after their favorite up-and-coming labels. They dig the food-friendly structure and European-style understatement, a product of the rocky earth, cool nights and nice clones – Chard 96 and 15, and Pinot clones 828, 777, Pommard and 115, for the geeks – all on 1103 Paulsen root stock that does well with dry farming and stubborn soils.

“The Chardonnays are driven beautifully with clean minerals and aromatics,” Kabat-Marcy says. “The Pinots are elegant and complex. Both are refreshing expressions of our local terrior. The plus is knowing Garrett and his wife Cassia are truly devoted to their craft.”

Another bit of Hawley serendipity comes in with the climate too: While wine buyers from San Diego to San Francisco praise Albatross for “picking early” to retain acidity and balance, Garrett admits he doesn’t have any choice in the matter. He just hopes they get ripe enough. And they do, barely.

He tells me this as we’re riding around the estate’s 244 acres (18 of which are planted) with glasses of beautiful 2012 Estate Pinot ($55/bottle) blended from the top 12 barrels of the vintage. This comes after we sample the unfiltered, unfined2012 Chardonnay, which enjoys the same misty complexion of the horizon’s sky as a marine layer moves in to cool the grapes and preserve complexity.

First he weaves stories of internships spent in Burgundy and Oregon pulling 18-hour days, the highlight of which, he is quick to indicate, was meeting Cassia. She’s the farm-raised fellow harvest intern and mother of the surprisingly sure-footed Vivian, 2, who accompanies our vineyard stroll through the oncoming dusk. She’s as comfortable freelancing off into the vines hunting for beetles as she is riding in the Polaris four-wheeler over rolling dirt roads that run from the well-fed water tanks to lower lands where the family might try exotic Italian varietals.

Garrett and Cassia run the relatively new tasting room (747-7362) in Carmel, which snuggles into a modest space in the same courtyard as Anton & Michel’s fountain patio on Mission between Ocean and Seventh, with hand-hewn warmth. Think reclaimed barn wood, a shadowy Albatross signature along the back wall and seven retro, heavy-iron swivel stools along a stone-and-wood tasting bar. The stuff in the glass, though, is what makes it all go ($10/tasting; $25-$55/bottle).

It all makes for an albatross they wear proudly, and one that adventurous winelovers drink eagerly.

QUICKBITES

• Cantinetta Luca lunch came online this month, and with it came a new dinner menu too. The Dungeness crab granchio, the deepened carne choices and the housemade bucatino alla Romano rank among the memorable additions.

• Dan Tudor was dealt a harsh lesson by the Carmel City Council after city staff recommended his tasting room be approved. The council rejected it unanimously. Apparently it pays not to piss people off. His Facebook rant is epic.

• Oh, the mess at über popular Dametra in Carmel (see The Buzz, p. 8). Thank the pita gods they have the new spot in Del Monte Center and an alleged backup location in Chaos-by-the-Sea.

• APinot freak’s bucket-list mission comes 1-4pm Saturday, May 16, as vintners pour their rare vintages at scenic Mer Soleil Winery for the Santa Lucia Highlands annual gala tasting ($85). Bites from top regional chefs and, oh, tons of wines from the likes of Bernardus and Black Kite, Hallcrest and Hawks View, McIntyre and Miura, Pessagno and Pisoni.

• Asian street food – dumplings, yakatori, bibingka, fried tofu and steamed pork buns – come to Carmel Belle (624-1600) in a special pop-up “Mabuhay!” Monday, May 18. Small plates start at $6, rice bowls $12, sweets $4. Doors open 5pm.

• Galloping on the heels of their new Wrangler’s white Pinot Gris and Rustler’s Rouge Pinot at Wills Fargo, Holman Ranch’s new dessert Pinot, Big Daddy ($45), is slightly dry and totally delicious. Wills also introduces a brand new weekend brunch starting this Saturday, May 16, and running 11am-4pm.

• Nielsen Bros. Market in Carmel-by-the-Sea presents a grand Champagne tasting 4-5:30pm Friday, May 15, featuring Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial and Rose, Veuve Clicquot “Yellow Label’’ Brut, and Moet and Chandon’s newest cuvee “Delice,” all for free.

• From 4-8pm Tuesdays at Pizza My Heart (656-9400) in Del Monte Center, kids can make their own pizza hands-on, for $5, including a drink.

• Jeffrey Weiss of jeninni kitchen + wine bar anchors MEarth’s latest benefit dinner Wednesday, May 20. mearthcarmel.org.

• Isaac Asimov: “The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.”