2023 Dragonette Cellars Pinot Noir Bentrock Vineyard Sta Rita Hills 750 ml

Dragonette is one of California’s best Pinot Noir producers, and their 2023 Bentrock stands out even among a lineup of world-class wines.

The Bentrock Vineyard belongs to the owners of Screaming Eagle, who acquired it as part of Rancho Salsipuedes in 2014. The 3,600-acre property—its name loosely translates to “get out while you can”—holds three exceptional vineyards: Radian, Bentrock, and Puerta del Mar.

Sister site to the wild, dramatic Radian, Bentrock climbs the steep, southeast-facing hills at the far western edge of the Sta. Rita Hills. Its slopes of sandy, shaly clay loam and diatomaceous earth sit just miles from the Pacific, buffeted by relentless ocean winds and cooled by daily fog.

Those conditions stretch ripening into a long, slow affair. The vines yield tiny, intensely flavored berries with bracing natural acidity—concentration and energy in equal measure. It’s the kind of place that makes you think of Burgundy.

Dragonette has been chasing exactly this since brothers John and Steve Dragonette and winemaker Brandon Sparks-Gillis founded the winery in 2005. Their farming, in Sparks-Gillis’s words, is “almost like bonsai”—meticulous, pruned hard to severely limit yields. The fruit here is certified sustainable, farmed without herbicides.

The 2023 season rewarded that patience. Long and cool, without a single dangerous heat spike, it gave a Pinot harvest that stretched nearly six weeks and let every block come in at ideal ripeness.

The result is a wine of rare grace and drive—exuberant cherry and berry fruit, a clear marine note, and a supple, seamless texture that carries from start to finish. Vinous called it an easy contender for wine of the vintage in the Sta. Rita Hills.