Wine Arcana

Region

Sta. Rita Hills

Also known as Santa Rita Hills

Sta. Rita Hills is an American viticultural area (AVA) in the western Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, California. Ocean air moves inland through its east–west corridors, supporting a long, cool growing season associated especially with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The AVA was established in 2001.1. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, “List of AVAs by Establishment Date,” listing 31 May 2001 as the publication date of the establishing rule.

Its vineyards differ in exposure, soils, and planting material, and producers make distinct decisions about harvest, stems, extraction, and barrels.

Marine air and hillsides

The Purisima Hills lie to the north and the Santa Rosa Hills to the south. Between them, valley corridors provide routes for Pacific fog and wind. These openings help explain why vineyards at this southerly latitude can ripen varieties associated with cooler climates.

Marine sedimentary material is an important part of the region's geology, but individual vineyards contain different combinations of sand, clay, shale, and other material. Those differences affect rooting and water supply. Aspect and shelter also matter: a slope's exposure to afternoon wind changes the conditions experienced by leaves and fruit.

Sanford's adjacent vineyards illustrate that local variation. Sanford & Benedict has clay-loam soils with fractured shale and chert. At La Rinconada, the estate describes sandy loam on lower ground and more clay, shale, and diatomaceous material higher up. The winery farms and vinifies individual blocks separately. A named vineyard can therefore contain several distinct sources of fruit, even before differences in vine age and clonal selection are considered.

Ripeness and winemaking

The maritime setting gives growers time to develop flavor while retaining acidity, but harvest date remains a stylistic choice. Picking later can increase sugar and potential alcohol; the outcome also depends on crop level, weather, and fruit condition.

In Pinot Noir, the decision to retain stems during whole-cluster fermentation adds another source of variation. Stems can change aroma and tannin, while the proportion of intact berries changes how fermentation proceeds. The extraction regime and length of maceration then shape the wine's texture.

Melville's 2022 Estate Pinot Noir is one documented example. The producer fermented 40% of the fruit as whole clusters, with the balance destemmed. Skin and stem contact averaged about a month, and maturation used well-seasoned French oak. This combination distinguishes extraction from oak flavor: a wine can receive substantial skin contact while acquiring little fresh wood aroma.

Vineyard continuity

The local winegrowers' alliance places the planting of Sanford & Benedict in 1971 at the beginning of the area's modern vineyard history. The vineyard remains part of Sanford's estate, alongside La Rinconada, planted in 1997. Sanford's continuing work with surviving early plantings gives readers a reference for the region's development over several generations of vines.

Melville provides a complementary reference through its detailed estate bottlings and published fermentation records. Comparing those methods with Sanford's block-based vineyard account is useful because each describes a different part of the process: where differences in fruit originate, and how a winemaker chooses to handle that fruit.

Sources