A good share of Byron winemaking takes place in the vineyard, where winemaker Jonathan Nagy selects individual rows and blocks for their potential to express both variety and site; focusing particularly on clones that best exemplify Byron’s balanced, textural and site-expressive style.
Aromas and flavors of Chinese five spice, with hints of cumin. This wine has bright acidity, with a long, and textured finish.
acquire
The Nielson Vineyard’s location at the warmer, eastern end of the Santa Maria Valley accounts for the wine’s dark color and ripe flavor profile. Prior to fermentation, the Pinot Noir clusters were 100% de-stemmed and kept cold for 5 days to accentuate the naturally smooth texture of our estate grown fruit. Rose petal and dark cherry with hints of graphite and green tea.
acquire
Julia’s Vineyard is home to Santa Barbara’s oldest producing Pinot Noir vines planted in the 1970s. The fruit for this wine was selected from two low vigor, “old vine” rows planted to the Pommard clone 4. During fermentation, a combination of punch downs and pump-overs is used to circulate the skins and juice, ensuring maximum extraction. A portion of this wine was barrel fermented to encourage oak components to integrate with the wine at an early stage. The core is infused with red fruit, cranberries and spice. The finish is long, smoky and elegant.
acquire
Perched on sandy bluffs overlooking the ocean, Sierra Madre is the coolest and westernmost vineyard that we source from in Santa Maria Valley. We selected the fruit for this Pinot Noir from a sandy block planted to Clone 667. After aging in Francois Freres barrels, the resulting wine expresses brambly red fruit and graphite with a hint of wilted rose petal, followed by bright acid and smooth tannins.
acquire
92+ Points, – The Wine Advocate, September 2017
Monument is our flagship Pinot Noir, blended from the finest barrels from the best blocks on our estate vineyard. Cold winds and sandy soils over adobe hard pan limit root growth in these blocks and lend this wine a great intensity, heightened aromatics and firm structure. The light crop in 2015 produced small berries and small clusters leading to a concentrated expression of Pinot Noir. Barrel fermentation adds distinctive smoky notes and hints of toasted brown spice while providing the wine with the backbone and depth to age gracefully.
Byron’s bottling from the high-elevation Rita’s Crown Vineyard is noteworthy for its savory profile, accentuated by our use of new Taransaud barrels. The palate is rich, but focused with notes of black currants, pomegranate and brown spices along with an underlying salinity reminiscent of the wine’s coastal roots — Rita’s Crown is less than 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
acquire
90 Points – The Wine Advocate, September 2017
La Encantada is our westernmost vineyard site in the Sta. Rita Hills. Prior to fermentation, we de-stem all the clusters from this vineyard to preserve the expressive aromatics and juicy textural elements that are signatures of this organically farmed site. Our La Encantada Pinot Noir has lush aromas of ripe black berries, violets, and a hint of spice. It is a hedonistic and powerful wine suited which benefitted from aging in new Francois Freres barrels.
One of Sta. Rita Hills’ newest and most exciting plantings, this vineyard sits along the eastern border of the AVA. The site’s 100-acres benefit from a myriad of exposures and marine influences, which together with premium clonal selection and high-density planting, produce exceptionally small clusters and berries. The wine exhibits dark plum and dark cherry with brown spice and hints of saltiness. The core is of black fruit with a finish that is long and smokey with hints of brown spice.
The Fiddlestix Vineyard Pinot Noir shows violet and blueberry characteristics, along with earth, hints of black tea and a long smoky finish.
acquire
This vineyard is the western most vineyard along Santa Rosa Road in Sta. Rita Hills. The exposure and proximity to the Pacific Ocean make it one of the coolest vineyards in the appellation. The wine has dark plum and blueberry with hints of green tea and earth. The core of rich, dark fruit is complimented by chalky tannins and smoke finish.
Solomon Hills is the western most vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley. The vineyard was planted in the late 1990’s and named Solomon Hills after Salomon Pico, the bandit that traveled along the El Camino Real in the 1850’s (the inspiration for Zorro). It is the western most vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley. The wine offers complex aromatics of Chinese five spice, cumin, rose petal, dark cherry and smoke. It is dark cherry with rich, silky tannins and a smoke finish.
This Chardonnay from the famed Bien Nacido Vineyard is a blend of Pommard clones 4 and 95. Clone 4 offers aromas of lemon curd and key lime pie. Clone 95 delivers honey, fruit blossoms and red apple. This rich and multilayered wine displays wonderful acidity with a hint of wet stone on the finish.
The Chardonnay vines in our Nielson Vineyard feature cuttings from the original “Wente” clone planted on our estate in 1964. The clusters we select contain an optimal mix of berry sizes: the larger, riper berries provide the wine’s rich stone fruit flavors while the smaller ones contribute to the wine’s firm acidity and underlying minerality. This wine benefits from cool temperature barrel fermentation utilizing native yeast, and the lees are stirred every two weeks for enhanced mouthfeel and texture.
acquire
back to top
