Wines Pouring

• 2021 Loner "The Mysterious Charm of Old Ruins"

  Sta. Rita Hills / John Sebastiano Vineyard

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  The most wind-swept, dustiest, and steepest spots, near the chilly Pacific in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA do Pinot Noir better than just about any place on this blue planet. And they afford the winemaker options – we get to choose between two distinct styles: either very California by letting the needle go in the red and picking late, or with a nod to old world siblings by exercising restraint and picking on the early side. We like to do both, and make wines that have plenty of bounce in their bungee, capture the brightness, energy, and more of the red fruit spectrum, along with the complexities of damp earth and forest floor, and yet offer the unapologetic generosity of California. This edition of Loner Pinot is among the most balanced and complete we’ve ever made.

  Suggested Retail Price: $95
• 2017 Loner "A Bicyclette"

  Sta. Rita Hills / John Sebastiano Vineyard

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  This exquisitely perfumed, mouth-coating beverage is an ultra-deluxe composition of Pinot Noir from the John Sebastiano vineyard, raised in neutral 500L barrels for nearly 3 years, with enough style, sophistication, and drama, to recall the black and white films of Louis Malle, and Truffaut … in which the main character is of course wearing a stylish scarf and some silly hat, riding a bicycle through damp, late-October-afternoon-sunlit Paris streets; instead of honking, motorists are smiling and waving because even French people were nicer then (at least in movies), and the character is not checking their cell-phone while riding the bicycle, not because that’s a stupid thing to do, but because they didn’t exist yet ….

  Suggested Retail Price: $95
• 2014 Loner "Las Orillas"

  Sta. Rita Hills / John Sebastiano Vineyard

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  The (only) 2014 Pinot Noir bottling, Las Orillas, probably has the highest loveliness factor and purity of heart of all the Pinot Noirs we have bottled since 2010. It’s aromatic delicacy and finesse betray the savage place from whence it hails (John Sebastiano vineyard in Santa Rita Hills), but its well toned body and winsome core confirm that it had to stand up for itself growing up, not unlike Johnny Cash’s boy named Sue – though, Las Orillas is a more like a woman of extraordinary character. The loveliest bones are the structure that support the body’s athletic energy, enveloped in skin smoother than a whale gliding elegantly through the Pacific (and with the quality of a siren that resides in that dark body of water).

  Suggested Retail Price: $125