2019 Racines, Sanford & Benedict Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills, California,USA
Critics reviews
This is the most floral-suffused wine of the three pinots with more spice wisps on the elegant, cool, airy essence of red berry fruit aromas. There is fine volume to the intense and solidly concentrated flavours that are shaped by relatively fine-grained tannins on the compact, youthfully austere and dusty finale. This sneaky long effort is noticeably backward and a wine that is definitely going to require at least some patience. Lovely and worth considering.
Drink from 2027 onward
Allen Meadows, Burghound.com (April 2022)
The 2019 Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict is a powerful, brooding wine. The high percentage of stems (75%) undoubtedly adds savoury intensity but also masks some site character. The 2019 is a gorgeous wine, but it is also austere and not an especially typical expression of this site. I hope to have a chance to taste it in a decade.
Racines is the Sta. Rita Hills project headed by Etienne de Montille, Rodolphe Péters and Justin Willett. The wines are deep, layered and, not surprisingly, super-expressive with regards to site. The Pinots in particular tend to show notable breadth from a combination of a high percentage of stems, classic winemaking and relatively long aging of around 19 months in barrel.
Drink 2024 - 2039
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (June 2021)
About this WINE
Racines Wines
Burgundian winemakers Étienne de Montille and Brian Sieve joined with Champagne’s Rodolphe Peters to form Racines, in California’s Santa Rita Hills.
Their aim was to locate a perfect terroir outside of France: one where they could utilise produce stellar Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays, outside the constrictions of their respective French regions.
The cool climate of the Santa Rita Hills provided the perfect terroir for this new venture, given the team’s multi-generational expertise in hand-crafting Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs of remarkable purity and elegance. While Santa Rita’s ocean-driven terroir shines through, these wines benefit hugely from being crafted with the technique and expertise of hundreds of years of Burgundian and Champagne winemaking.
Ultimate care is given to the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, in order to coax out unique qualities. Whole-cluster fermentation is combined with pigéage throughout the Pinot Noir fermentation, to add spice to a burlier, weighted character. Chardonnay grapes are grown several miles from the ocean in ancient marine sea beds, to give the wines they create a real sense of energy, transparency and precision.
Santa Barbara County
At the foot of the Central Coast, just north of Los Angeles, the Santa Barbara County reverberates with its Missionary past, although viticulture as we know didn't arrive here until the 1970s. Now there are 6,000 ha of world class Pinot Noir & Chardonnay.
While fog banks shape the season, together with a notable rainfall deficit between May & November, elevated terraces such as Bien Nacido in the Santa Maria Valley AVA faciliate premium fruit growing. Santa Ynez Valley AVA enjoys similar trait, though cooler still;
Recommended Producers:
Au Bon Climat's Sanford & Benedict Chardonnay from the region's Santa Rita hills is a prime example. Qupe are another excellent source
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.
Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.
The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.
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Description
This is the most floral-suffused wine of the three pinots with more spice wisps on the elegant, cool, airy essence of red berry fruit aromas. There is fine volume to the intense and solidly concentrated flavours that are shaped by relatively fine-grained tannins on the compact, youthfully austere and dusty finale. This sneaky long effort is noticeably backward and a wine that is definitely going to require at least some patience. Lovely and worth considering.
Drink from 2027 onward
Allen Meadows, Burghound.com (April 2022)
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