Some neat Sta. Rita Hills vineyard notes and photos from Friday afternoon

I went out Friday with Chris Bratcher of Bratcher Winery looking at some of his vineyard blocks in Sta. Rita Hills. It was an interesting check-in on the progress of the 2012 vintage here- one that based on my observation has had plenty of sunshine, moderate temperatures and no frost worries (but I’m no expert!)

The first site was Rita’s Crown Vineyard, which sits atop a ridge on the Santa Rita Hills side of the Santa Ynez River overlooking Mt. Carmel and Sea Smoke Vineyards. Located in the center of the Sta. Rita Hills AVA and planted to Dijon clones of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, it’s a wind-swept and cold high-elevation vineyard with varying exposures. The soils are sandy and clay loam with diatomaceous earth.

The second site was Radian Vineyard, located in the Santa Rosa foothills in the far southwest of the AVA. It’s also a very cool site, with flowering running behind the progress at Rita’s Crown. Radian is a newer vineyard in the AVA, with vines at about five years old on average. The exposures vary and the soils are shale and clay loam. It’s also planted to Dijon clones of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

It was a great look at two emerging cold-climate sites in Sta. Rita Hills.

Below are some photos of the day-
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Driving up Rita’s Crown past the old abandoned monastery

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At the top of Rita’s Crown

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Flowering Chardonnay at Rita’s Crown

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Pinot Noir blocks on an extreme slope at Rita’s Crown

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Bratcher Chardonnay block at Rita’s Crown

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Leaving Rita’s Crown- overlooking the monastery and Mt Carmel vineyard across the valley to Sanford and Benedict

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Looking back at the extreme slope of Pinot Noir at Rita’s Crown

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On the way out, looking back at Sea Smoke Vineyard. Chardonnay is in the foreground and you can barely see Pinot Noir in the background slopes.

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Bratcher Pinot Noir block at Radian- NE facing back toward Rita’s Crown on the peaks in the far distance.

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Flowering Pinot Noir at Radian.

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Radian-looking west.

Thanks for the pics. Bratch is an old hometown and undergrad friend Great guy. Fun for me to get a look at his vines. I look forward to trying his wines.

Thanks for the comment Armando. Bratch is a cool dude and I appreciate him taking me out into the vineyards. Good stuff so far with his first releases and definitely more on the way.

Thanks, Matt. Who owns Rita’s Crown?

Premier Pacific Vineyards. They own both of the sites. If you Google the name of the vineyard it should pull up their site- all of the technical info is there.

RC is actually owned by CaliPERS (California Public Employees’ Retirement System). PPV is the management/farming company.

Don thank you for the clarification.

CalPERS announced last fall that it was removing PPV as manager of its vineyard properties. It’s my understanding that GI Partners is now the manager and they contract with Atlas Vineyard Management to work the vineyards. AVM hired many of the people PPV laid off. Very convoluted!

One might ask why a public pension fund is one of the largest vineyard owners in California.

-Al

Could it be that they think grapes are a better investment than the stock market?

Beautiful! I’m a SRH fan, but have cut back to refocus on the closer to home SLH and SCM. Those pics make we want to reconsider!

Did not know there was a monastery up there…

Needs to be converted into a bed and breakfast!

No doubt, or that would be a crazy cool place for a winery tasting room if you take away the fact that its inaccessible by a public road

One word

HELICOPTER!