Fall 2024 Wine Club

2020 Dierberg Syrah, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara

Star Lane Vineyard Syrah is often quite savory, with spiced cured meat flavors dancing around the core of dark cherry fruit. In 2020 the subtleties of the grape varietal seem to show through even more than in past years, with an undercurrent of bacon fat and garrigue laced throughout the dark and concentrated fruit. This year's Syrah shows how serious the wine can be from Happy Canyon and demonstrates a sophistication that is likely coming from a well developed vineyard. The wine should age for many years to come.

2020 Star Lane Cabernet Sauvignon, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara

While 2020 was marked throughout California by wildfires and other challenges, the vintage in Santa Barbara and specifically Happy Canyon proved to be quite good and relatively unaffected by the challenges faced in the north of the state. The vineyard in Happy Canyon once again showed its health and resiliency, even through normal heat spikes, and ended up producing balanced and delicious Bordelaise varietals with Cabernet Franc expressing its hallmark spice, dark fruit and beautiful herb and tea-leaf aromas.

2018 Star Lane ASTRAL Cabernet Sauvignon, Happy Canyon of Santa B.

A throwback wine for California Cabernet and reminiscent of our 2014, 2018 Astral is blue in its fruit, classic in its Star Lane sage and chaparral, wants time to develop, and is built upon a structure of tension and depth akin to mid-1990s Napa Cabernet Sauvignons. Fruit profiles seemed darker, and as we normally see with own-rooted blocks that make up Astral, richness arrived even in a year of tension. Nearly all Cabernet Sauvignon (98%), a kiss of Petit Verdot (1%) and Malbec (1%) were added to bring everything into balance. This wine should develop beautifully.

2021 Star Lane Chenin Blanc, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara

The same terroir-driven qualities which lend to the production of excellent California Cabernet Sauvignon seem to aid in the growing of delicious and inviting Chenin Blanc at Star Lane Vineyard. Chenin likes slopes and elevations—in Savennières the Chenin Blanc vineyards are so steep they must all be horse plowed and hand-harvested. The serpentine soils and aspect of Star Lane Vineyard seem to play to Chenin Blanc’s strengths.

2021 Star Lane Nebbiolo, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara

What is Nebbiolo? A winemaker must always ask themselves questions like these when handling an old variety in a new area.  We were confident about trialing this variety because of its natural vigor and tolerance for warmer climates, but what would that mean for its nature from Star Lane Vineyard? Having tasted several of the classics from Piedmont (not exclusively but principally Barbaresco and Barolo) we trusted the vineyard and variety to produce the aromatics, and focused upon the acid and tannin balance which can be tricky in Nebbiolo where tannin is tempted to get out of hand for a wine that otherwise feels like Pinot Noir.  What we discovered was wonderful. Structure in the wine built quickly during the fermentation and we limited mixing to keep extraction slow.  After barreling down into 400 liter neutral oak barrels we kept in eye on the evolution of the balance between grippy tannins and the levity brought by good acidity and employed our best tool: patience.