Marketing Opportunity for Santa Cruz Mountains Wineries

Super Groovy Visionary: How One Global Nomad Is Reimagining the Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Region

By Jennifer Mount

When Alejandro Blanco arrived in Santa Cruz County, he wasn’t looking to start a business. He was exploring - following curiosity, a camera, and a quiet sense that the Central Coast held something special. What he discovered was an opportunity to support the area’s world-class wine region with his marketing talents.

Today, through his venture Super Groovy Travels, Blanco is building something new - a community-first tourism and digital marketing initiative designed to amplify the Santa Cruz Mountains as a destination while helping small wineries and local businesses survive and thrive.

From Global Roots to Local Stewardship

Raised in Miami in a Cuban family, Blanco served in military intelligence before spending more than a decade in China, running a corporate security firm focused on risk assessment and crisis management. His career demanded cultural fluency, strategic planning, and the ability to identify vulnerabilities - skills he now applies to an entirely different mission: elevating the Santa Cruz Mountains wine community.

On his first drives through the mountains, he saw breathtaking scenery - redwoods, rugged ridgelines, ocean views - and tucked between them, numerous vineyards producing exceptional wines. What he didn’t see was a digital presence to match their quality. Some wineries lacked basic online information: no consistent hours on Google Maps, outdated Yelp pages, weak social media, poor Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and little storytelling.  

What Super Groovy Travels Delivers

Super Groovy Travels focuses on social media management and is a community development project, built to make wine more approachable and the wineries more visible. Blanco’s current complimentary services include:

• Free vineyard video production - cinematic drone footage, intro videos, and behind-the-scenes storytelling

• Interviews with winemakers - giving each winery a face and voice

• Social media management & strategy - TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts presence

• Digital footprint assessments  -Google Maps, Yelp, SEO optimization

• Content creation for “ma & pop” wineries that don’t have marketing budgets

• “Wine & Wander” video series - 25+ episodes showcasing every winery in the region

• Monthly journalism through Substack covering wine history, culture, and marketing

Proving the Value - For Free

Much of the project remains free by design, at least for now. Blanco provides his services at no cost, at this time, in order to prove the value of strong marketing through real results: increased engagement and increased foot traffic.

By the end of the year, Blanco hopes the data will speak for itself. After the basics are in place, wineries can then decide if they would like to pay for more services. “We give the wineries the recipe,” Blanco explains. “Here’s what’s working, here’s where you’re vulnerable, and here’s how you can fix it - or we can do it for you.” 

Wine, Made Approachable

One of Blanco’s central goals is removing intimidation from wine culture. “If you’ve never been wine tasting, it can feel overwhelming. We start with what people do know - what they like to drink, where they want to explore - and build from there.” 

The Bigger Vision

The future of Super Groovy Travels involves expansion beyond wine and into a full scale travel agency that will spotlight hotels, restaurants, and related businesses. Blanco hopes to help overlooked places build marketing systems they can run themselves.

“I love hosting people. I love making plans, and I love when the plans go well. Many places don’t have big marketing budgets. But they’re special and people should know.” Blanco smiles when he sums it up: “I live here. I love it. And I want the world to know how special it is.”

For more information and to participate, contact: info@supergroovytravels.com 

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This article first appeared in the San Lorenzo Valley Chamber of Commerce & Tourism News & Events Blog