Corralitos

Drive into the Santa Cruz Mountains from the south, and at some point the road bends inland and the soil turns the color of cinnamon. That is Corralitos: a sandy, decomposed marine sediment laid down a few million years ago, with the Monterey Bay sitting twelve to fifteen miles to your west and pumping cool air uphill all afternoon.

Pinot has never made more sense to us than at sparkling levels of ripeness in this dirt. There is something about the way the fruit comes in here, savory before sweet, with a salt-thread you can taste even at eighteen Brix.

The 2020 Corralitos Extra Brut is built from three neighbouring vineyards: Deer Park Ranch, the Francis J Vineyard, and a parcel called La Vida Bella. The heart of the wine spent twelve months unsulfured in barrel, with one component (the 2019 vintage) doing twenty-four. Bottled August 2021. Twenty-two months on the lees. Disgorged September 2023. Three grams per liter of dosage.

The blend is sixty-four percent Pinot, thirty-six percent Chardonnay. The wine drinks fruit-forward at first and structural underneath; the Chardonnay carries the spine, the Pinot does the singing. The 2019 component grafted in for context: a touch more time, a touch more salt. There is fruit in this wine; there is also bone.

1,714 bottles. Drink now, or hold five years and watch it sharpen.