Dominion Tantara Pinot Noir Cuvee Rita Santa Rita Hills 2017

A stellar Santa Rita Hills pinot noir cut from some seriously legitimate plots, this wine comes in UNDER $20 a bottle, when it normally retails above $40…if the math’s mathing, that’s more than 50% OFF this Santa Barbara County beauty! And a wine well worthy of your time and attention!

The kind comrades at Dominion Tantara have been around since ‘97 and tend to focus on small-production wines that are typically allocated to restaurants, which means you may not have heard of them unless you happened to pick out a bottle to go with your beef tartare on your last date night. Today’s pinot pick is a blend of grapes from Zotovich, Bentrock, and La Encantada Vineyards, each one a magnificent central coast site that has loamy, rich terroir, and the cool climate influence of our pal, the Pacific Ocean.

Every time we feature a bottle from this producer, y’all drink it up and seem to want more and more of these velvety, luxurious, amazingly valued wines. They consistently source their fruit from some of the most well-loved vineyards in the area and meticulously produce beautiful iterations of pinot noir, chardonnay, and a select few other varietals. They like to keep their lots small; in fact, this Cuvee Rita pinot noir has only had 136 cases made…ever! After hand-harvesting, sorting, and de-stemming the fruit, it’s fermented in open-top vessels with daily hand punch-downs. After fermentation comes aging in 33% new French oak barrels for 16 months, and then unfined, unfiltered bottling.

The result? A wine that simply boasts tried-and-true Santa Rita Hills magic: ripe fruit notes that are never overtly sweet, packed with black plums, crushed raspberries, sour cranberry, and a meld of roasted herbs. A soft backend of smoked meats, earthy mushrooms, and forest floor finish this off, making for a complex and savory, yet delightfully approachable, fresh, and bright Cali-pinot to absolutely write home about. And, honestly, for $18.95…it’d be a mistake not to load up on this one for now and for later!