Sandhi, Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills, California, 2022

Overview of the Wine
Sandhi is a small production California winery focusing on select vineyards from the Sta. Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County. Sandhi was founded in 2010 by Rajat Parr, the wine director for Michael Mina Restaurants, and winemaker, Sashi Moorman.

Sandhi represents a union essential to the production of wine: the collaboration between man, earth, and vine. The willing participation of all three elements is necessary to make great wine, and the winegrower must make this collaboration rich and nourishing for all involved. An understanding of these joint efforts informs Sandhi’s exploration of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines throughout the Santa Barbara County terroir.

The individual vineyards from which these grapes originate–some legendary, some new–have been exhaustively vetted for character, personality, and balance. Employing the wisdom and talents of people who know the vineyards, Sandhi is dedicated to making wines of finesse, minerality, acidity, structure and balance. Wine achieves power and beauty through the seamless integration of these qualities, and this is the inspiration for Sandhi. Wines exhibiting extreme ripeness, alcohol, oak, and other discordant exaggerations cannot truly express a specific vineyards terroir.

Grape / Blend
100% Pinot Noir

Origin
Santa Barbara, California

Tasting Notes
Brimming with high-toned, youthful aromatics, ... leads with crunchy red fruits of pomegranate, wild strawberry, and sun-warmed raspberry. The exuberantly fruited nose is undergirded with orange zest, black tea, tea rose, and faint hints of clove and spice. The bright, vivacious palate carries a taut mineral streak through to a lengthy finish lifting the red fruit notes with a whisper of anise.

94 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills comes from declassified fruit grown at Domaine de la Côte, plus purchased fruit from three other vineyards, including La Rinconada. It's a particularly complex and expressive iteration of Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir from Sandhi. It has an alluring perfume of raspberry, strawberry, tea leaves, tobacco, potpourri and gravel dust, and it reveals botanical undertones as it spends time in the glass. The light-bodied palate has a deep core of spicy, herbal fruit, a frame of chalky tannins, energetic acidity and a long, layered finish.

93 Points - Wine Spectator
This bristles with a bright, savory streak that fully permeates the core of bitter cherry and damson plum, while sage, green tea and pepper notes dart around. The long, taut, pinpoint finish leaves a lingering twang of iron. Best from 2025 through 2032.

Product size: 750ml