If you don’t know Tantara, you don’t know Rick! Grimy green briar and squished bug, an explosive nose of candied fruit and chocolate sheet cake. Musty spice, wooden wagon wheels and the sear on beef, hazelnut coffee and wet Pendleton. And then you taste it.

It tastes like it shouldn’t be crystal clear. Like there is chewable texture to work over the tongue. I keep checking, but it is. Just a clear medium beautiful perfect ruby with seriously garnet edges. Sharp and cunningly fruited, piles of Burgundy baggage lurk behind and under California fruit. But not too much California. There’s no root-beer here, no petrichor or cassis or black cherry or vanilla. This is all cranberry and mud, tea and crumpets, latex and sap, lemon zest and the bitter angst of actual structure.

I know you all have had sea smoke crammed down your throats as THE bling Santa Rita Hills pinot, but I’m telling you: I LIVE here and there’s 2 or 3 producers like Tantara truly at cult status making a product head and shoulders more *Pinot*, more intelligent, more valuable in the long run. You probably haven’t heard of this winery–they don’t even have a fuckin instagram–but do yourself a favor.

2013 TANTARA WINERY Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills Santa Barbara County 13.1

tantarawines.com