Spring 2025 Wine Club

2024 Star Lane Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara

Tropical and stone fruits are the hallmark of Star Lane Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc. A beautiful citrus pops out early in this vintage. Grab some fresh pasta, clams and herbs from the garden and use ¼ of the bottle to cook with as you enjoy the rest and you’ll be in food and wine heaven!

2022 Dierberg Drum Canyon Vineyard Chardonnay, Sta. Rita Hills

Says, Jeb Dunnuck, “Ripe stone fruits, toasted bread, lemon curd, and honeyed flower notes are just some of the nuances in the 2022 Chardonnay Drum Canyon Vineyard, a round, medium-bodied, fleshy, balanced Chardonnay. It's going to drink nicely for 5-7 years with ease.” Jeb gave it 92-Points. He also went on to say, “I always love these wines from winemaker Tyler Thomas, who always seems to fashion wines with classic, balanced profiles that show Old World-like structure while possessing beautiful California fruit.”

2021 Dierberg Drum Canyon Vineyard Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills

Says Jeb Dunnuck, “The 2021 Pinot Noir Drum Canyon Vineyard reveals a dense ruby hue as well as slightly reductive notes of iron-laced black cherries, mulberries, forest floor, spicy wood, and truffle. With medium-bodied richness, a concentrated, focused mouthfeel, and beautiful tanning, it's a serious, age-worthy, incredibly impressive wine, yet it needs another year of bottle age at a minimum. If drinking bottles any time soon, give it a decant.” 94+ Points.

2021 and 2019 Star Lane Vineyard Merlot Sauvignon, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara

2021 presented unique challenges specific to Star Lane that we didn’t see in the Sta. Rita Hills. Frost events at the end of 2020 before the vines went dormant impacted early Spring growth in 2021. This lead to uneven bud break timing, shoot growth, and flowering. While challenging, one thing we’ve learned over the years of farming is that grapevines are very resilient and that great wine can be discovered, its the work to find it that changes with each vintage. 2 years prior, 2019 was actually a very wet winter and led to beautiful ripe Merlot in the vineyard. Merlot tends to ripen earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon both here at Star Lane Vineyard and in all of the great Bordelaise vineyards of the world. The Merlot at Star Lane Vineyard is planted on two different Clay soil types both of which drain well and allow us to control plant vigor.

2021 and 2018 Star Lane Vineyard Cabernet Franc Sauvignon, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara

2021 presented unique challenges specific to Star Lane that we didn’t see in the Sta. Rita Hills. Frost events at the end of 2020 before the vines went dormant impacted early Spring growth in 2021. This lead to uneven bud break timing, shoot growth, and flowering. While challenging, one thing we’ve learned over the years of farming is that grapevines are very resilient and that great wine can be discovered, its the work to find it that changes with each vintage. 2018, though, was a vintage we needed. It provided a reprieve from the variables of heat spells and drought. Steady and mild temperatures throughout the ripening period, the fruit that makes up this blend took its time to mature and allowed us to harvest with a greater sense of energy and suppleness than 2017 or 2016.

2018 Star Lane ASTRAL Cabernet Sauvignon, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara

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.

2020 Star Lane Vineyard 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 Vineyard Malbec, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara

One of our abiding values in producing our wines is that the winery serves the vineyard. We are here to study and understand how best to cultivate world class Cabernet Sauvignon using classic techniques and varieties. To do this every single block and every variety is carefully isolated and fermented separately independent of its yield or logistical hurdles. It is through such approach that we have observed an evolution over time in the quality and consistency of our Malbec. So much so, we succumbed to the temptation to bottle a small fraction on its own. Malbec, in some respects, is a Bordeaux variety playing a little like Pinot Noir: it is light on its feet in the mid palate (like Pinot Noir) even if dark in color (unlike Pinot Noir). We’ve discovered that extending the time on the skins builds a wine with the proper structure to stand alone, and therefore create the opportunity to show off its lifted blue fruit aromatics and youthful appeal.