Sta. Rita Hills

Last week I flew for the first time since February. In many ways it was a pleasant experience: near empty airports, half-full planes, without much of the stress of a busy flight.

The reason for the trip was to visit my sister-in-law who’s just moved to LA. I thought this would present a good opportunity to go wine tasting in Santa Barbara County, believing it to be not too far away. Turns out LA is quite a big place and what I’d imagined to be a one-hour drive was three hours … still, a lot closer than a six-hour drive from Sonoma County so off I set.

This was only the second time I’d been to Santa Barbara County, which is why I was so eager to visit. The focus of my visit was Sta. Rita Hills, an AVA about 45 minutes’ drive north of the city of Santa Barbara. Some of the most exciting Californian wines I’ve tried recently are from Sta. Rita Hills, with a focus on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay but with Rhône varieties also planted.

a little history

The history of grape-growing and winemaking in Santa Barbara starts in what is now the Sta. Rita Hills AVA. In the early 1970s, friends Michael Benedict and Richard Stanton were seeking a cool, coastal climate in California in an undiscovered area that could rival Europe’s best wines. They settled on what is now the Sanford & Benedict vineyard which is still considered one of the best sites, and one which leading producers continue to source from. Those first tentative steps accelerated in the 1980s, with producers such as Au Bon Climat demonstrating that world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay could be made. By 2004, the region was well known enough—and, perhaps most importantly, well known enough for Pinot—that it was the focus of the (in)famous Sideways movie.

the quite bizarre “Danish” town of Solvang in the heart of Sta. Rita Hills

The climate is one of the coolest in California, despite it being so far south. The coastal influence is strong, and as I drove back to LA on the 101 the fog lingered until midday. That influence is particularly keen in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA, where the east-west lying mountains trap the cool air. The hills and valleys create many localised growing conditions, which is why there are so many exciting wines being made.

Tyler

I visited the Tyler winery in the heart of Sta. Rita Hills, on their new estate vineyard which is just beginning to bear fruit. The concentration is on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which are planted on the property (I encouraged them to plant Riesling on the empty plot just below the new home/tasting room, while Syrah has also been planted behind the property). Justin Willet—his middle name is Tyler—is a Santa Barbara local and after taking a degree in Art History and Architecture, he met Richard Stanton at a party in LA and started chatting to him. Stanton encouraged Justin as a Santa Barbara native to make wine in order to help support and develop the region. Justin wisely listened to him and worked harvests in the cellar, starting at Arcadian Cellars while making his own wine (6 barrels of Pinot was his first vintage in 2005). That was fifteen years ago, when he was 24; now, Tyler are established as one of the leading wineries in the region.

Although the focus is increasingly on the new property, fruit has always been sourced from across Santa Barbara County. The Tyler Chardonnay comes from vineyards in Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley and is as good an introduction to California Chardonnay as any: gently rich and creamy with bright acidity, a wine that pleases traditional Chardonnay lovers as well as fans of more restrained, acidic white wines ($33; ✪✪✪✪✪).

The Tyler property itself is a great place to visit, because it overlooks the valley which is enclosed by two mountain ranges: the Sta. Rita Hills themselves to the north and Sta. Rosa Hills to the south. This gives a strong impression of just how the AVA is shaped by the topography and exposure the hills create, as well as the different soil types. In fact, Justin and his team believe the AVA should be broken down into four sub-AVAs such is its diversity (not something I would recommend from a commercial angle at least).

Tyler also make a series of single-vineyard Chardonnays and Pinots which are exceptional and showcase the diversity of Sta. Rita Hills. The Zotovich Vineyard Chardonnay comes from a property next door to Tyler’s, planted in 2006 on sandy soils—in general, the soils of the northern part of the AVA are sand and limestone, alluvial by the river Ynez, and chalk on the Sta. Rosa Hills. The Zotovich was bright, fresh, gently creamy, a great example of how the wines of Sta. Rita Hills are about acidity and stucture as much as fruit ($57; ✪✪✪✪✪✪). La Rinconada is a vineyard next door to Sanford Benedict on the southern side of the AVA, planted in 1997. It’s a richer, creamier wine, though still exceptionally bright and lively ($63; ✪✪✪✪✪).

I also tasted a couple of Tyler’s single-vineyard Pinot Noirs. La Encantada was the first vineyard in the area to be certified organic, an example of a broad move away from conventional winemaking to a more hands-off, low intervention model; Tyler only work with vineyards farmed with organic practices. The wine is made with 33% whole-cluster fermentation and native yeasts, for a wine that’s chewy, spicy, and gripping, again characterised by lively acidity (✪✪✪✪✪). The Pinot Noir from La Rinconada is fuller even though it has the lower pH, with more whole cluster (50%) and a similarly chewy, acidic structure ($85; ✪✪✪✪✪).

Holus Bolus

Tyler’s wines are representative of the really exciting, acid-driven character of Sta. Rita Hills. It’s not just Pinot and Chardonnay, however. I also visited Holus Bolus, who have a small tasting room in the town of Los Olivos in the heart of Sta. Rita Hills, packed with wineries and restaurants (the town and region were surprisingly busy, with visitors from LA and San Diego discovering the area for the first time). Holus Bolus make wines under several labels, which is a little confusing but the two main labels are Holus Bolus itself which is for wines made from vineyards the winery do not own and The Joy Fantastic from a vineyard they do own to the west of the AVA.

They make excellent Chardonnay and Pinot, but also wine from Rhône varieties. The Roussanne comes from the famous Bien Nacido vineyard in Santa Maria Valley and is rich, creamy, nutty, and waxy ($?; ✪✪✪✪✪), but it’s the two Syrahs from Sta. Rita Hills which are particularly interesting. The Holus Bolus comes from the Sebastiano vineyard to the east of the AVA, planted at 400m elevation. Made with 30% whole clusters, it’s ripe with aromas of green olives, liquorice, herbs, and with a fine, tannic structure ($32; ✪✪✪✪✪). In contrast, The Joy Fantastic Syrah comes from their own property, and is as far west as Syrah is planted in the region. It’s made with slightly less whole cluster (20%), and is leaner and spicier with the same fine tannic structure ($50; ✪✪✪✪✪). It was hard to say which I preferred, but I tended towards the riper, juicier style of the Holus Bolus.

This is just a brief snapshot of Sta. Rita Hills, which in itself is just a small part of Santa Barbara County. Rhône varieties are successfully planted all over the county, while Bordeaux grapes do well in AVAs such as Happy Canyon (named because it was the centre for illicit alcohol during Prohibition and pot in the 1960s onwards). For such a young grape-growing region there seems to be a real understanding of regional differences and which grape varieties work best where, an understanding which continues to evolve. More producers are willing to plant on hillside slopes, which will lead to even more different expressions in the wines. In general, Santa Barbara is an extremely exciting region, with Sta. Rita Hills the AVA that’s leading the way.