Recognition has been slow to come to Monterey's wine country. Writers have called it an area "poised for greatness," and yet it still lingers in the shadow of California’s better-known wine areas, like the Napa Valley and even other Central Coast appellations such as Paso Robles and Sta. Rita Hills.

Annette Hoff is a passionate defender of Monterey’s potential. She’s worked in the Napa Valley and New Zealand, but seems to have finally put down roots in Monterey, where she’s the founding winemaker for Cima Collina, a small winery started in 2004. The winery’s name means “top of the hill” in Italian, a common theme for owner Dick Lumpkin who also owns the Hilltop Ranch in Carmel Valley.

Hoff started her career at Sterling Vineyards in the Napa Valley, where she ran the experimental winery, producing a range of small lots. In 1996, she joined Saintsbury Vineyards as enologist, cementing her passion for Pinot Noir. She spent a few months in New Zealand’s Martinborough region in 1998 before returning to California to become the Pinot Noir winemaker at Estancia Winery in Monterey County. After a couple of years, she decided to go out on her own as a consultant to the growing number of small wineries that were springing up in Monterey at that time. Hoff gave up consulting to help start Cima Collina, where she works with grapes sourced from a number of small vineyards from around the county. Hoff talked with Appellation America’s Monterey correspondent, Laurie Daniel, about the evolution, reputation and vast potential of the Monterey AVA.