Simply 25 years earlier, no one– not even winemakers in Santa Barbara County– promoted the name “Sta. Rita Hills” as a prime location for growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Yet simply twenty years after the appellation’s creation in 2001, this fog-soaked, wind-whipped western edge of the Santa Ynez Valley is an internationally recognized hotspot for cool-climate grapes and a model of how to properly craft an American Viticultural Area.
” It can be tough to cover your head around Southern California and consider a cool climate,” describes Matt Dees, who makes The Hilt red wines from the Bentrock and Radian vineyards on Rancho Salsipuedes. “Up until people come here and see it for themselves or taste adequate wines, it’s hard to fathom. But once people taste that freshness and electrical power in the whites and the depth of fruit and complexity of the reds, they become believers quite quick.”
Today, those followers consist of both larger wineries from Northern California and highly regarded domaines in Burgundy and Champagne. So how did this no-name region rise to international praise so quickly? And what does the future hold?
Image Courtesy of George Rose
Beyond Hot or Not
The rise of the Sta. Rita Hills is rooted in the combination of pure intents and perfect timing. “The start was quite innocent– there wasn’t any expectation of achievement,” stated Richard Sanford, who, along with Michael Benedict, was the very first to plant wine grapes here in 1971. “We were just discovering a method to be in nature and make a living. All the pieces entered into place.”
When their 1976 Sanford & & Benedict Vineyard Pinot Noir won broad praise, others began planting vineyards between Buellton and Lompoc. The speed heightened into the 1990s, when the first Dijon clones of Pinot Noir struck the marketplace and modern farming strategies such as drip irrigation, vertical trellising, cover cropping and high-density planting entered vogue.
” We took advantage of not only the climate and the soil and the land pricing but also these viticultural advancements,” states Chad Melville, whose father, Ron Melville, bought land alongside Highway 246 in 1996. “That was a big impact.”
However the mainstream understanding of Santa Barbara County was that the Santa Maria Valley was cold and the Santa Ynez Valley was hot. That just wasn’t real on the Santa Ynez Valley’s western end, so the vintners needed to inform their own story. “The motivation of the appellation was very pure,” explained Greg Maker, whose Brewer-Clifton brand name is almost entirely focused on the region. “It wasn’t an appellation that was substantiated of a financial thing or an ego thing or a location of envy, like numerous borders can be. It was a genuine appellation substantiated of instructional clearness. It was very standard: We weren’t hot.”
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Holding firm to the message that the location was different, not better, Sanford convened a group, consisting of leaders in the region such as Richard Longoria and Bryan Babcock, to examine forming a sub-appellation. With Wes Hagen– whose family planted Clos Pepe in 1996– managing information, they mapped it peak to peak to map it out, efficiently developing their own appellation template.
“It wasn’t an appellation that was born out of a financial thing or an ego thing or a location of envy, like numerous borders can be.”
“This appellation was extremely, very various in its establishment since it wasn’t an old growing area and it wasn’t being leveraged by PR individuals,” stated Sanford, who still regrets that the eastern boundary was somewhat expanded in 2016. “There was purity in the whole procedure– rather than attempting to flex the borders to accommodate other people’s desires.” Sanford likewise had to go to Chile to smooth things over with Viña Santa Rita, which is why the appellation’s name was ultimately abbreviated to “Sta.” Rita Hills.The appellation was authorized in 2001, when winemaker Gavin Chanin of Chanin Wines was simply a teenager. After working with areas throughout the state, he believes they got it right. “I’m a skeptic of AVAs– I don’t believe they’re really helpful, with the exception of the Sta. Rita Hills, “he states.”I discover that it has a truly distinct character, even though there are multiple soil types and multiple exposures. “The great times rolled on into the mid-2000s, with wallets growing fat and the movie Sideways shooting up an enthusiasm for Pinot Noir from the Sta. Rita Hills and the entire Santa Ynez Valley as a location.” It had that ideal storm element, “says Brewer. “Before the motion picture came out, individuals didn’t understand how to pronounce Pinot Noir, “says Melville.”That provided individuals a convenience zone of getting their heads around this mysterious grape. It made it approachable.”Image Courtesy of George Rose Not Simply Pinot-land Sideways pumped up the appeal of Pinot Noir, which now far surpasses Chardonnay in acreage. Over time, that’s reproduced a variety of
styles, from vibrant and ripe to lean and elegant, yet they all bring hallmarks of the appellation. “Whether you’re choosing early or late, “said The Hilt’s Matt Dees,”the soul still shines through.”In spite of Pinot’s prominence, Dees believes– as do almost all of the dozen-plus vintners we spoke to– Chardonnay is the appellation’s true star.”
The beauty for me is that, from east to west, the Chardonnays are identifiably Sta. Rita Hills, even when tasted blind,”he says.”I’m ferociously happy with that.”Babcock says that the Chardonnay has”an additional equipment”to take on white wines from anywhere, while Brewer calls it” extremely singular. “Proof of that goes back to a 1989 bottling of Chardonnay from the area by Rick Longoria, long before anybody considered it as an appellation. Set against leading Chardonnays from all over the world by a prominent magazine, Longoria’s was named number one, earning 98 points.”That may have been the very first peek,”he recalls.Melville pours his Chardonnay last during tastings.”They have that salty, briny minerality– this stunning tight acid with concentrated fruit– all involved one plan, “he says.”When I pour it at the end, it simply blows the entire thing up. People just drop in their tracks and are like,’Whoa.'”These winemakers are also bullish on Sta. Rita Hills Syrah, which, says Melville, offers tastes of”purple flower, white pepper, olive tapenade and charcuterie, with fresh acidity and just enough grippiness to make it all work.” Of course, he often must let
it ripen till the possibly damp days of November, however describes, “With the danger comes benefits.”In fact, some of the region’s most well-known wines– those from Eleven Confessions Vineyard by Manfred Krankl’s Sine Qua Non– are Rhône-based, so it’s not a surprise to see Grenache gaining ground, too. There are likewise exciting, if small, plantings of Gamay, Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and other outliers.”The story is a lot much easier to tell if you say that the Sta. Rita Hills is Pinot-land, but there’s a lot of thrill in some other ranges, and certainly Syrah and Chardonnay are currently shown in my book, “states veteran vintner Adam Tolmach of
The Ojai Vineyard, who just recently bought Fe Ciega Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills.”There is space for more discovery.” Another frontier is champagne, which Standard Yost of Flying Goat Cellars initially crafted in 2005.” Why is nobody making any sparkling wine here?” he wondered at that time while testing grapes around veraison and discovering their chemistry perfect.” We have phenolic advancement
at lower numbers. That’s why we can make them drier. “Fess Parker Winery was 2nd on that train, and now runs a special gleaming tasting space called the Bubble Shack. Winemaker Blair Fox discovered the process from Yost, and is now sourcing nearly exclusively from their Parker West Vineyard on the appellation’s western edge. However it
‘s occurring everywhere.”I see increasingly more individuals selecting for sparkling wine now than ever,” states Fox.Yost hopes the trend grows, questioning,” Is any person going to plant Pinot Meunier? “Image Thanks To George Rose The Long Game One important difficulty for an area’s reputation is the longevity of its red wines. Only over the last few years have actually there been enough older Sta. Rita Hills vintages to judge as such, however the
decisions are encouraging. Anyone lucky sufficient to try those old Sanford & Benedicts of the ’70s and ’80s was persuaded long back.”That is no
fluke,”saiys Babcock.”This is
an indication that, in a great vintage, if you make it right, the wine is gon na go 20 to 25 years, no sweat.” Financial investment from the similarity Napa superstars such as Dave Phinney and big brands like Jackson Household has actually reinforced Sta. Rita Hills, however nothing better & verifies a red wine area dominated by Pinot Noir
and Chardonnay than vignerons from Burgundy and Champagne staking claim. Etienne de Montille did just that in 2017 when, after a month-long trip
of the West Coast, through the Willamette Valley, Sonoma Coast, Santa Cruz Mountains and somewhere else, chose the Sta. Rita Hills for his Racines Wines brand name. Champagne veteran Rodolphe Péters is a partner, overseeing the sparkling program. They share an underlying hope that the region’s direct seaside impact will temper the warming weather patterns, as compared to their land-locked settings in the Vintage.”We can with confidence say that the Sta. Rita Hills has the coldest environment in all of those regions,” states de Montille. “The Sta. Rita Hills likewise takes pleasure in more varied soils than we might discover in Oregon or Northern California, ranging from sandy soil to Monterey shale to clay to diatomaceous earth and even some limestone. That was an excellent surprise for us.” Provided the competitive nature of the red wine organization, California’s consistent dry spell and the progressively chaotic effects of climate modification, not even a blessed area like the Sta. Rita Hills sleeps comfortably.”I fret more, frankly, about water,”says Victor Gallegos of Sea Smoke Vineyard.”Everybody has their head in the sand on that topic. We’re not having any conversations about what level of planting that watershed can sustain.”
He’s not speaking about grapes or cannabis, which both utilize drip watering– he suggests old-school farmers. If regulators do get involved, states Gallegos,”Individuals who are flood-irrigating or sprinkler-irrigating row crops in the Lompoc plain will most likely disappear or alter their practices. “Sashi Moorman, who makes Domaine de la Côte with Rajat Parr, is getting ready for more violent storms, however his prevailing environment issue is more subtle.” The winter seasons are warmer,”he says, explaining that, without a proper freeze, vine diseases multiply.” These are major problems that will end up being more serious. “”We’re not having any conversations about what level of planting that watershed can sustain.”Adam Tolmach saw Pierce’s illness ruin his Ojai home a quarter-century ago. He’s since planted disease-resistant hybrid vines developed by UC-Davis(including Ambulo Blanc, Caminante Blanc, Walker Red and Paseante Noir)there and just planted some at Fe Ciega Vineyard as well, where the disease killed off a Chardonnay block close to the Santa Ynez River.”The lower areas are just terrible– you can’t
grow 100 %vinifera down there,”he states. He’s”guardedly pleased “about the hybrids, therefore are others.”
A minimum of 3 various vineyards have actually wanted to get ahold of me and discuss what these are,” he stated.”There’s fantastic interest.”When Pierce’s disease started eliminating his vineyard, Babcock pivoted by buying fruit from other vineyard sites around the county.”I feel like a kid in a sweet-shop,”states Babcock, who’s resolving another problem by no longer growing grapes: “The biggest concern that the industry has is oversupply [of grapes] “Stringent advancement rules likewise constrain Sta. Rita Hills, where it’s all but difficult to build a winery or tasting space.” That might pose a challenge to the development of the area,”says Brewer, who, thus numerous others, makes his white wine in a Lompoc warehouse and offers it through a tasting room in the wine-soaked town of Los Olivos.” There’s not a great deal of marketing flashiness between Highway 246 and Santa Rosa Road,”describes Hagen, referring to its still very rural nature.”The vines and wines are the stars, and they do the majority of the talking for us. “This post initially appeared in the very best of Year 2022 problem of Wine Lover publication. Click on this link to subscribe today!
grow 100 %vinifera down there,”he states. He’s”guardedly pleased “about the hybrids, therefore are others.”