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: 2016 Chanin "Sanford & Benedict Vineyard" Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir

2016 Chanin "Sanford & Benedict Vineyard" Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir (Elsewhere $60)

SKU #1497251 94 points Jeb Dunnuck

Outer quote mark The 2016 Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, from a site on the southern edge of the Sta. Rita Hills, is the flagship Pinot Noir of the estate and saw the standard 17 months in 15% new barrels. It's beautifully concentrated (which is a trait of this vineyard) with ample red currants, red cherries, spice box, forest floor, and crushed rock aromas and flavors. With medium to full body, a ripe, layered texture, good acidity, and sound underlying structure, it's going to benefit from 2-3 years of bottle age and keep for 10-15 years. 94+ Inner quote mark (10/2018)

94 points Vinous

Outer quote mark The 2016 Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict Vineyard offers lovely density and richness, with quite a bit of tannic intensity that is going to need time to resolve. Blue and purplish berry fruit, lavender, mint and spice all develop in the glass, but it is the wine's overall structure that stands out most. The 2016 is all class, but readers will have to be patient to see the wine at its very finest. (AG) Inner quote mark (9/2018)

93 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Outer quote mark The 2016 Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict Vineyard from Gavin Chanin is excellent, wafting from the glass with a deep bouquet of potpourri, blackberry, cherry, spice and black tea. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, with the most depth and mid-palate volume of all Chanin's Pinot Noirs, with a lovely core of crunchy fruit and some chewy grip on the sapid, savory finish. This should develop nicely in the cellar for the better part of a decade. (WK) 93+ Inner quote mark (4/2018)

93 points Wine & Spirits

Outer quote mark Sta. Rita at a cool reserve, this graceful red smells of nori and cherries, with a dusting of mocha-scented oak and briar. The flavors are lean, but the fresh fruit and silty tannins give it an expansive and generous feel. Decant it for roast duck. Inner quote mark (4/2019)

K&L Notes

Winemaker's Notes: "These grapes were harvested on August 19th and September 3rd at an average of 23.0 brix. The grapes underwent a four-day cold-soak with 1-3 punch downs by hand daily. Once dry, the wine was pressed and put into French oak barrels (15% new) where it stayed for 15 months before being racked and bottled unfiltered in February of 2018."

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2016 Chanin "Sanford & Benedict Vineyard" Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir

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By: Ryan Woodhouse | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 10/6/2020 | Send Email

Wow! A repeat of our sellout, slam dunk deal on the 2014 Chanin Sanford & Benedict Pinot Noir email from a few months back, now for the 2016 vintage. Our winery direct relationship with Chanin keeps these incredible bargains coming! Sanford & Benedict is one of the true Grand Cru sites of California and home to the oldest Pinot Noir vines in the Sta. Rita Hills. These old vines grow in a complex mixture of clay, diatomaceous shale, and chert, or flint, rocks. The result is powerful wines with great richness and breadth on the palate and an intricate thread of minerality running throughout. Winemaker Gavin Chanin is a true master of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and his expression of this iconic vineyard is second to none. Don't miss this offer at this unbelievably low price. This one is a case buy.

Additional Information:

Varietal:

Pinot Noir

- One of France's most legendary grapes and the grape that earned Burgundy its reputation. The parent of varietals like Pinot Gris/Grigio and Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir is blue to violet to indigo in color with relatively thin skins, and it is said to have been cultivated in France for more than 2,000 years. At its best, Pinot Noir creates elegant wines that are filled with primary red fruit aromas and flavors while young, revealing with an array of secondary characteristics like earth, smoke, violet, truffle and game with age. The varietal is also known, perhaps better than any, for its ability to translate terroir, or a sense of place. While the best Pinot Noir still comes from Burgundy, it is being produced with increasing success in cooler climates around the world. In France, it is part of the trifecta of grapes that can go into Champagne, and it is also grown in Alsace, Irancy, Jura, Savoie, Lorraine and Sancerre. Outside of France it is produced under the names Pinot Nero and Blauburgunder in Italy's mountainous regions, as Spätburgunder in Germany and as Blauburgunder in Austria. In the US, Pinot Noir has found suitable growing conditions in the cooler parts of California, including Carneros, the Russian River Valley, the Anderson Valley, the Sonoma Coast, Monterey County, the Santa Lucia Highlands and Santa Barbara County, as well as in Oregon's Willamette Valley. In recent years, New Zealand has demonstrated its ability to interpret this hard-to-grow varietal, with successful bottlings coming from careful and attentive growers in Central Otago, Martinborough and Canterbury. Chile is also an up-and-coming region for Pinot Noir, creating fresh, fruit-forward, early-drinking and affordable Pinots from the coastal Casablanca Valley and the Limari Valley.

Country:

United States

- When people consider domestic wine, they normally think about the state of California. The fine viticultural Region within California, including the Napa Valley, Sonoma, Santa Cruz Mountains, Mendocino and Santa Barbara, are capable of growing grapes of world-class quality. But there's plenty of fabulous wine coming from other states, too. Oregon, Washington and New York are also causing eyebrows (and glassware) to be raised around the world.

Sub-Region:

California

- With the explosive growth that California's wine industry has seen the past several years, it's easy to view winemaking and grape growing in the Golden State as a recent phenomenon. And while it's true that California's viticultural history is brief compared to several European countries, this state's roots date back well over 200 years. Due to the enormous response to California wine within the United States and worldwide, there are thousands of excellent and diverse wines being produced within the state each year.

Specific Appellation:

Santa Maria/Santa Barbara

- Santa Maria and Santa Ynez make up the two AVAs of Santa Barbara County, an area known for its natural beauty and temperate climate. The best grape-growing areas, however, are located on the very coastal reaches of these two appellations, and are cooled by ever-present fog and ocean breezes (it is even cooler and foggier here than Carneros!). As expected, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir thrive while the more inland zones lay claim to Bordeaux varietals and some Rhône blends.

Alcohol Content (%):

13.5