2020 Chardonnay 'Sanford & Benedict', Sanford

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From one of the most historically important vineyards in California, this is Chardonnay with pedigree, tension and quiet authority. Sanford & Benedict was planted in 1971 as the first vineyard in what became the Sta. Rita Hills, and it remains one of the region’s defining sites for both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

The 2020 opens with delicate aromas of apple, honey and tangerine peel, followed by nectarine, citrus blossom and a cool whisper of crushed stone. On the palate, it is textural yet precise, layering lemon cream, citrus peel and savoury white fruit over a saline, flinty core. There is richness here, but it is always held in check by coastal freshness and a long, mineral finish. Wine Enthusiast highlighted its long, savoury persistence, while other critics have noted its restrained, lifted character and freshness.

This is not just a great Chardonnay. It is a bottle from one of the vineyards that helped put Sta. Rita Hills on the map, a site still regarded as a source of some of California’s finest Chardonnay fruit.

For when: Chardonnay deserves the best glass in the house.
Pairs with: roast chicken, butter-poached lobster, or turbot with beurre blanc.
If this wine were a place: a windswept vineyard above the Pacific, sunlight on chalky soil.

Few wineries can say they helped create an entire wine region. Sanford Winery is one of them.  In 1971, Richard Sanford and botanist Michael Benedict planted the Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, the first vineyard in what would eventually become the Sta. Rita Hills AVA. Their goal was simple but radical at the time: prove that this cool, windswept corner of Santa Barbara County could produce world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Most growers believed the region was too cold to ripen grapes. Sanford believed the opposite.

Fifty years later, the Sta. Rita Hills is widely recognised as one of California’s greatest cool-climate wine regions, and Sanford remains one of its founding estates.