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In California (as everywhere), wine regions want to be thought of as special. A region that’s perceived as special can charge more money for their wines, which in turn lets them invest in their viticulture and enology and make the wines even better. This is why every wine region in California is secretly jealous of Napa Valley (not that they’d admit it). But not every wine region can be special. It’s a law of the universe. In this day and age of marketing, though, wine regions do the most amazing things to promote themselves as special. They form regional associations, charge dues, and hire publicists to, well, publicize their attributes and paint them in the best possible light. Nothing wrong with that. If you’re a wine region and you don’t blow your own horn, you’ve got a problem. Which makes it all the more remarkable when a new wine region comes on the scene and achieves fame even before they have a functioning association and with hardly lifting a finger to promote themselves. I’m talking about the Santa Rita Hills appellation of Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley. Sta. Rita Hills (as the name must appear on the label to avoid a conflict of interest with Chile’s Santa Rita Winery) is probably most famous as the main location of the movie Sideways, but that film did not create SRH’s fame. I can’t even recall that the words “Santa Rita Hills” were ever uttered in the movie. (If anyone knows, please tell me.) Besides, wine critics are not about to salivate over a wine region simply because it’s in a movie. No, the critics began praising SRH in the ‘90s, and the pace has simply accelerated in the 2000s. Today, I think it’s safe to say that SRH stands as one of the greatest places in the New World to grow Pinot Noir (and they do a great job at Chardonnay and Syrah and Pinot Gris and perhaps one or two others). And they got there on their own — not with fancy marketing packages and press kits and events with celebrity auctioneers. Not with spin and hype. Not by luring in big spenders with resorts and great restaurants and golf courses. They did it the old-fashioned way: They earned it. (I can still hear John Houseman saying those words.) A pictorial essay of California's newest 'hotbed' for Pinot Noir Grape Nutz visited the appellation one Fall weekend and took some great photographs. View the essay here. |
Steve Heimoff, West Coast Editor for the Wine Enthusiast
wrote about Sta. Rita Hills in his blog: