2022 Sandlands Red Table Wine

HIGHLY ALLOCATED CULT WINE!

65% Carignane and 35% Mataro from vines planted in the 1920s. 14 barrels made. 13.5% alcohol.  Light, bright, with surprisingly depth, this has sour cherry, blueberry, herbal and tea qualities. Drinks like restrained Pinot Noir. Tegan Passalacqua has made wine around the world, including at the famed Alain Graillot in the Northern Rhone, and most notably he spent twenty years working his way up to wine-maker/vineyard manager at Turley. The Graillot connection is important, because it’s likely there that he learned the importance of granite: a soil that is now a Sandlands specialty. But the other lessons he’s absorbed have been closer to home: the importance of heritage California grape varieties, the importance of dry farming, the importance of making wines of elegance and balance.