2012 LUTUM Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict Vineyard 750 ml

“American Grand Cru in a Lompoc Barn” — Winemaker of the Year Gavin Chanin

In 1970, Richard Sanford and Michael Benedict began looking for land on the southern California coast on which they could plant a few acres of vines. A year later, they stumbled upon a property not far from chilly waters of the Pacific, in close proximity to Point Conception.

Recognizing that the coastal range runs east-west, not north-south as it does on the Sonoma Coast, the partners opted to plant Pinot Noir. They suspected that mild summer temperatures rarely topping 80 degrees and an extended growing season could be magical for the world’s most floral and complex variety.

We will never forget tasting the 1976 Sanford and Benedict Pinot Noir in the spring of 1980. Fresh off our first trip to the Côte de Nuits in the summer of 1979, when we tasted dozens of bottles from the warm 1976 vintage, Richard and Michael’s first commercial release would have felt perfectly at home in a lineup of Premier Cru Gevrey-Chambertins. Crafted in a makeshift “winery” a few miles from the coast, the Los Angeles Times described the 1976 Sanford and Benedict Pinot Noir as “American Grand Cru in a Lompoc Barn.”

In July 2013, a Who’s Who of Santa Barbara Pinot Noir winemakers gathered around Richard Sanford and Michael Benedict at the old barn that once served as the first Sanford and Benedict Winery. Among the dignitaries who came to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the release of Richard and Michael’s legendary 1976 were Greg Brewer (Hilliard Bruce, Brewer-Clifton), Matt Dees (Jonata), Chad Melville (Melville), Bill Wathen (Foxen), Rick Longoria (Longoria), and Justin Willett (Tyler), all of whom have crafted magnificent Sanford and Benedict Vineyard Pinot Noirs over the last few decades.

Joining the old guard was young Gavin Chanin, the 30-year-old many have already decided is the heir to Steve Kistler’s Pinot Noir throne. In a 2012 vintage that Melville, Brewer, and Wathen all told us was “near perfect,” Chanin — Food & Wine Magazine’s “Winemaker of the Year” and a member of Forbes Magazine’s list of “30 Under 30” — crafted a Sanford & Benedict Pinot Noir for the ages, one that ranks among the richest and most complex we’ve ever tasted off of this own-rooted “Grand Cru” vineyard.

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, Gavin’s most enthusiastic cheerleader at Lutum (meaning “dirt” or “soil,” if you remember your high school Latin), came out like gangbusters, describing this spectacularly rich and polished 201 Sanford & Benedict Vineyard Pinot Noir as “incredibly fine and polished… Loaded with notions of black raspberry, cherry blossom, white flowers and hints of underbrush, it has integrated acidity, fine tannin and a rocking finish. 94 points.”

If you’re a California Pinot Noir or Burgundy collector, this is a coup. ONE BARREL — or 300 bottles — are up for grabs. Like STEALING … at $55/bottle. Shipping included on 4.