Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, from a site on the southern edge of the Sta. Rita Hills, is the flagship Pinot Noir of the estate and saw the standard 17 months in 15% new barrels. It's beautifully concentrated (which is a trait of this vineyard) with ample red currants, red cherries, spice box, forest floor, and crushed rock aromas and flavors. With medium to full body, a ripe, layered texture, good acidity, and sound underlying structure, it's going to benefit from 2-3 years of bottle age and keep for 10-15 years.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict Vineyard from Gavin Chanin is excellent, wafting from the glass with a deep bouquet of potpourri, blackberry, cherry, spice and black tea. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, with the most depth and mid-palate volume of all Chanin's Pinot Noirs, with a lovely core of crunchy fruit and some chewy grip on the sapid, savory finish. This should develop nicely in the cellar for the better part of a decade.
Rating: 93+ -
Wine & Spirits
Sta. Rita at a cool reserve, this graceful red smells of nori and cherries, with a dusting of mocha-scented oak and briar. The flavors are lean, but the fresh fruit and silty tannins give it an expansive and generous feel. Decant it for roast duck.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.