Archive

2011 Santa Rita Hills
Pinot Noir

This wine showcases all the exuberance of Santa Rita Hills and is a great entry level Pinot Noir. It is a blend of our vineyard holdings in the Santa Rita Hills with over half the fruit from 40 year-old vines at the Sanford & Benedict vineyard with the rest coming from our sections and younger vines at Rita’s Crown and Bent Rock. It has bright, shiny, crunchy black raspberry fruit with great aromatic lift of fruit, flowers and cola spice. The wine is delicious now and will age gracefully for another 5-7 years.

2011 Santa Barbara County
Chardonnay

The fruit for this bottling comes from our sites in the Santa Rita Hills, Santa Maria and Santa Ynez appellations. The average age of the vines is over 25 years and is from specific parcels of Wente selection. The wine is pale gold in the glass with a toasty nose and citrus hints of lime peel. The palate is vibrant with good structure showing plenty of restraint, balance and salinity. The wine’s expressive aromatics and generous texture are balanced by a lively acidity and great uplift in the finish. This is a nice entry-level offering and is a great introduction to the style of our wines.

2010 Sanford & Benedict
Chardonnay

Planted in 1971 by the legendary and pioneering Richard Sanford, this site represents the oldest Pinot Noir plantings in all of Santa Barbara County and is largely synonymous with the creation of the Santa Rita Hills appellation.

Tucked into the eastern corner of the Santa Rita Hills with north-facing blocks, this vineyard is planted on hard, silica gravel and well-drained soils. Because of Richard Sanford’s legacy, both as a farmer and a gentleman, within the region and industry we feel honored to be working with the fruit that he first planted.

Our sections both come from the oldest blocks (41 year old vines) where the vine trunks are gnarled producing small amounts of beautifully graceful, concentrated and textured fruit. The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blocks are both from the Mount Eden selection, widely considered to be some of the first cuttings brought into California.

2010 Rita’s Crown
Chardonnay

This is our first bottling from this promising site that is planted at the highest elevation in the region, hence the “Crown of Santa Rita”. Planted at 500 to 1000 feet, Rita’s Crown is planted on diatomaceous soils, which are fossilized seashells and hallmarks of the appellation. This soil creates a mineral thread in the wines while adding more stress to the vines concentrating the fruit flavors. Please click here to see what this soil looks like and a picture of the vineyard. Our sections are south facing receiving ample sun providing slightly riper and juicier fruit. In our opinion, this is the blockbuster white of the spring line-up with solid structure and persistence.