2014 Jonata Todos Proprietary Red Wine Ballard Canyon 750 ml

Santa Barbara’s First Growth

In all of Santa Barbara County, one producer—just one—holds the top scores (99 points and 100 points) in the last FIVE vintages: JONATA. Last year, Robert Parker’s longtime critic and star in his own right, Jeb Dunnuck, bestowed 100-point perfection on JONATA’s winemaker Matt Dees. “It’s always a fun tasting with winemaker Matt Dees and his team, and they continue to keep this estate at the top of the hierarchy in Santa Barbara County,” Dunnuck has written.

Dunnuck isn’t alone in his praise of Jonata. “Excellence is the norm,” writes Antonio Galloni of Vinous, who labeled Matt “one of the most brilliant winemakers of his generation.” And they’re not alone—the owners of Screaming Eagle think pretty highly of Matt too. They hired Matt in 2004 to shepherd their first harvest, and never looked back. So, from the paramount of pedigree, top winemaking talent, and the top producer of Santa Baraba County comes this 2014 Jonata Todos Proprietary Red from the dynamite Ballard Canyon AVA—probably one of the best place in America outside Napa to grow Bordeaux varieties.    

At $52.99 per bottle, we’ll give you three very good reasons to buy as much of this 2014 Todos as you can before it is simply too late:

First, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate gushed in a 94+ point review over its “blackberries, blueberry pie and cassis-scented” aromas, “Indian spices and black pepper-laced undercurrent, plus a waft of lavender,” calling it a “finely crafted beauty” that “offers great seamlessness and harmony.” In short: delicious. Second, now that Dees has landed in the realm of 100-point winemakers, it’s only a matter of time before prices soar and demand slashes our allocations, which brings us to the last reason to buy this 2014 Todos now: we have just 50 cases and we’ve already been warned that because yields were so low in 2015, our allocation is going to be a whopping three (3) cases! That’s it!

Frankly, none of this should be a surprise. Winemaker Matt Dees landed in Napa at Staglin in 2001, the same day 100-point winemaker Andy Erickson started. Dees soaked in all he could from Erickson whose CV boasts winemaking at Ovid, Arietta, Screaming Eagle, and Dalla Valle. But Dees is a rockstar winemaker in his own right, with his own 100-pointer, and the backing of one of Americas greatest winery owners, whose own Oakville First Growth is a bottle that makes the bucket list of every serious wine aficionado from Napa to Hong Kong.

You heard it here first: Santa Barbara has its own First Growth, and it’s Jonata. And Jonata’s owners recognize that Wine Access members are savvy collectors. You won’t find Jonata wines just anywhere. You’ll find them where it counts. Where provenance is king, and each bottle is shepherded from the winery to your door in the best condition possible. Time to hit “Buy.”