2024 Hawkbox Pinot Noir Radian Vineyard Sta Rita Hills 750 ml

Some vineyards you have to earn your way into. Radian is one of them.

The full name of its original ranch was Rancho Salsipuedes—loosely, "get out while you can." That tells you most of what you need to know about the place. It sits on a steep ridge at the far western edge of the Sta. Rita Hills, barely a dozen miles from the Pacific, where fog rolls in most mornings and the wind almost never stops. The cold comes off the ocean and never fully lifts, keeping ripening slow and the growing season long.

The upper blocks are planted on ancient diatomaceous soil so pale and powdery it looks like the surface of the moon, giving way lower down to a dramatic natural amphitheater the growers here call the Pinot Bowl. It's no accident that the team behind Screaming Eagle went looking this far off the beaten path and planted their flag here.

Nothing about farming it is easy, and that's the point. The vines fight for every bit of water and nutrient, and the yields come in tiny. What survives is fruit of unusual intensity and tension—dark and concentrated, yet lit up by the kind of natural acidity you only get this close to a cold ocean.

Reed Skupny knows how to handle it. He's the second generation of Lang & Reed, the St. Helena family that raised him among the vines, and he learned the craft in some serious rooms—Pahlmeyer, a harvest at Mudhouse in New Zealand, Chenin and Cabernet Franc at Domaine Bernard Baudry in Chinon, then years alongside Russell Bevan at Bevan Cellars. Today he runs the cellar at Elyse.

In the glass, expect a lively ruby and a nose of red roses, dark cherry, and a curl of sarsaparilla, with nutmeg and dried herbs underneath. The palate is vibrant and layered, red fruit and spice riding on silky tannins toward a finish that keeps going.