After brewing beer since the age of 19, John Benedetti moved into winemaking in 2008 and founded Sante Arcangeli Family Wines, with a focus on Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Corralitos region. Then, in 2010 he co-founded Sante Adairius Rustic Ales with a focus on Belgian-inspired beers aged in his used Chardonnay and Pinot Noir barrels.  Not long after the opening of the brewery, he exited the brewery to focus full time on winemaking, opening his own production facility in nearby Aromas, where he now produces 2500 cases annually for the Sante Arcangeli label while also winemaking for several smaller client labels.

In the summer of 2010, John stumbled across Split Rail Vineyard, an older vineyard on a hilltop high above Corralitos that had once been part of the David Bruce estate. The vineyard had fallen into disrepair, but was being resurrected by new owners, and John got involved as the sole producer on a hunch that the unique site, ringed by Redwoods and Madrones at 1700’ elevation only 4 miles from the ocean, would produce interesting wine. Shortly after, a bit of research uncovered the vineyard’s direct lineage as one of the sole remaining descendants of the field selection brought from the Latour property by Paul Masson in the 1890s.  Wines from Split Rail Vineyard have since garnered international praise year after year for their nuanced, old world personality.

From William Kelly, Wine Advocate:
“Proprietor and winemaker John Benedetti is producing noteworthy wines for his Sante Arcangeli that seem to get better each year. The style is quite giving and gourmand, finding its perfect foil in the high-altitude Split Rail Vineyard perched at 1,700 feet in Corralitos, a site planted in the late 1980s that’s become the source of Sante Arcangeli’s flagship bottling. Serious and meticulous, Benedetti is establishing himself as one of the rising stars of the Santa Cruz Mountains."