2021 Racines Pinot Noir Sainte Rose Sta. Rita Hills 750 ml

Few wine labels have arrived with the pedigree of Racines. Born of a partnership between Étienne de Montille and Brian Sieve of Domaine de Montille in Burgundy and Rodolphe Péters of Champagne Pierre Péters, the project set its sights not on Napa but on the Sta. Rita Hills—a cool, fog-drenched appellation at the western end of the Santa Ynez Valley that has become one of the most compelling addresses for Pinot Noir in the world.

Since their first vintage in 2017, Racines has earned a place among California’s most serious producers, with placements on lists like Eleven Madison Park across multiple consecutive vintages. The winemaking is overseen by Ryan Hannaford—dubbed the “vineyard whisperer” by Oregon superstar Walter Scott, and an alum of Evening Land and Chapter 24—who employs whole-cluster fermentation and native yeasts across the portfolio.

The Sainte Rose takes its name from the French translation of Santa Rosa Road, the corridor along which all four of its source vineyards sit—blending their complementary terroirs into a single wine that aims to capture the full complexity of the Sta. Rita Hills.

Sanford & Benedict is the oldest vineyard in the appellation, planted in 1971 by Richard Sanford on a gently north-facing slope with thin soils of shale and chert—the site that effectively proved Sta. Rita Hills could produce world-class Pinot Noir. La Rinconada, planted in 1995 on deep, rocky soils adjacent to Sanford & Benedict, draws from Mt. Eden cuttings that Sanford brought down from Northern California.

La Encantada and Domaine de la Côte round out the blend, adding further textural range and aromatic lift. Together, the four vineyards span the appellation’s spectrum of soil types—from sandy loam to clay to shale—each bringing a different dimension to the Sainte Rose.

The 2021 vintage was a cooler, longer growing season that kept acids bright and gave the fruit time to develop real concentration without losing freshness or finesse—as close to ideal conditions as the appellation gets.