Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2014 Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict Vineyard is more fresh and lively, with a sappy note in its tart cranberry, pomegranate, rose petal and forest floor aromas and flavors. This beauty shines on the palate where it’s medium-bodied, fresh, taunt and elegant, yet with considerable mid-palate depth and a great finish. It’s impressive!
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Wine Enthusiast
Earthy aromas of juniper and forest floor give depth to the rusty cherry, tart cranberry, dried hibiscus and pepper-dust scents on the nose of this bottling from the historic vineyard. Soft in structure at first, it then delivers a firmer tannic edge in the midpalate, all the while delivering vivacious red fruit and pine-forest flavors. It will age very well.
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Wine Spectator
A creamy and spicy style, with mocha notes to the rich and pure flavors of dried raspberry and red currant. The silky finish lingers with smoke and sandalwood details.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The excellent 2014 Pinot Noir Sanford and Benedict Vineyard offers up aromas of earthy red and black fruits, spice and rose hip. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, complete and layered, with nice freshness and energy but more amplitude and dimension than its counterpart from the La Rinconada Vineyard.
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.