Racines Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir 2017
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Wong
Wilfred -
Parker
Robert - Decanter
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir is bold, punchy and super-expressive, with lovely aromatic nuance to play off the dark cherry and plum fruit. Classy and layered, the appellation Pinot is a wine of real character and breeding. Then again, that is not surprising given that vineyard sites are La Encantada, Sanford & Benedict, La Rinconada and Bentrock. The 2017 is a gorgeous wine from Etienne De Montille and Justin Willett.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Racines Sta. Rita Hills Cuvée Pinot Noir is an excellent example of the elegance of this AVA. TASTING NOTES: This wine is bright, zippy, and persistent. Pair its haunting and penetrating aromas and flavors of bright red fruit and attractive minerality with a plate of fresh salmon sashimi hand rolls. (Tasted: October 28, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby, the 2017 Pinot Noir has lovely aromas of orange peel, cranberry, rhubarb and mixed berry preserves with dust, sagebrush, tobacco, tea leaf and floral notes. It has a light to medium weight with intense spiced berry flavors, dusty tannins and juicy freshness, finishing long and spicy. This was bottled a week before I tasted it but is showing well.
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Decanter
The 2017 Racines Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir was aged in 20% new French oak for 18 months, and around a third whole cluster fermentation was used. The savoury nose shows notes of candlewax, bubblegum and dried flowers. The palate is bright and clean, and finishes on a floral note with flavours of cherry blossoms and wet rose petals. A solid introduction to this collaborative label from Justin Willett and Etienne de Montille.
Other Vintages
2019- Vinous
- Decanter
Racines is first a collaboration—the creative and rigorous output of four great voices of wine. Justin Willett of Tyler Winery has been joined in his home appellation, the Sta. Rita Hills, by Étienne de Montille and Brian Sieve of Domaine de Montille and our own Rodolphe Péters of Pierre Péters. Together, they are marrying the time-honored techniques of Burgundy and Champagne with the pioneering energy of California—and, in the process, they are rediscovering the nuances of the appellation’s most iconic vineyards.
Following the consolidation of Domaine de Montille, a family estate that dates back to the 1730s, Étienne de Montille looked to California, eager for an opportunity to engage new terroir with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as his lens. In 2016 he set off on a month of travel among the state’s myriad appellations, meeting their winemakers, tasting their wines. In short order it became apparent that the promise he was seeking lay in the Sta. Rita Hills—and the partner for such ambition was already there.
By 2016 Justin Willett, a son of Santa Barbara and career winemaker, had over a decade of experience coaxing forth the character of the region’s best vineyards. Étienne and Justin turned to compelling vineyard blocks that Justin had long coveted, and together they have presented refreshing new entries in the most important discussions of the appellation. And then, of course, there’s Rodolphe Péters. In 2018, Rodolphe joined Racines in deepening their understanding of Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay. Their first sparkling wines, now en tirage, are likely to debut in late autumn.
What’s more, in addition to the quick work they’ve made of benchmark sites – from Bentrock to Sanford & Benedict – Racines has leased the Wenzlau Vineyard and embarked on replanting its upper blocks. They have also purchased land adjacent to the Tyler estate vineyards. Planting here will commence this spring and continue in the spring of 2021.
The wines here possess more structure and resonance than encountered in Tyler’s ethereal approach. New cooperage and custom vats, tailored to Étienne’s technique, have been imported. The Pinots are composed using further stem inclusion, more extraction, and longer vatting. The Chardonnays are raised with more finessing of the fine lees and longer élevage. The results are immediately apparent in the glass: these are tensile and crystalline expressions of the Sta. Rita Hills– at once familiar and rendered anew.
Farming Practice:
Practicing Organic
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.