2017 Pali Wine Co. Huntington Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County 750 ml

This past fall we were in breezy Santa Barbara County with our own Master Sommelier Sur Lucero leading the way. After a full day crisscrossing the sun-kissed landscape, visiting Wine Access favorites like Foxen, Dragonette, and Ojai, we had every intention of capping things off with a beach-side stroll along Stearns Wharf. But we never made it. The 2017 Pali Wine Co. Huntington Pinot Noir changed our minds and our plans with uncanny brilliance and depth. 

Sur put it like this: “I taste a lot of California Pinot—literally thousands per year, and this delivers way above its pay grade. This is serious Pinot Noir, dense and structured, with a fleshy, smokey opulence that I usually only see in the $40+ range.”

Doubtless that’s why Wine Enthusiast awarded it 92 points and an Editors’ Choice selection, praising “a palate full of boysenberry, charred game and hints of marjoram and thyme.” For lovers of rich, full-bodied Pinot Noirs and Zinfandels alike, this is nothing short of a massive steal. 

It was Santa Barbara winemaking stars Rajat Parr, Peter Stolpman, and Ryan Deovlet who made us promise we wouldn’t miss the Pali tasting room, just two blocks from the beach in downtown Santa Barbara. With those three guys insisting we knew we couldn’t skip it, so we planned on a quick stop before an evening stroll by the waves. When we got to the tasting room it was buzzing with happy hour energy and glowing with golden-hour sunshine. 

We stood at the bar and ordered full pours of the dark ruby-hued 2017 Huntington Pinot Noir. It was shockingly good. At first we chalked it up to our excitement—a good mood has been known to add a few points to even the most objective wine reviews—but as we spent more time with the 2017 it became abundantly clear that this was the real deal. Its ripe notes of dark plum, raspberry and black cherry cola layered with violet and wild herbs reminded us every bit of the $45+ Pinot Noirs from Foxen, Dragonette, and Ojai that we had tasted earlier in the day. We had no choice but to skip the beach and fill our glasses a second (and third) time. 

Two premium sites are the sources for the 2017 Huntington Pinot Noir: Riverbench Vineyard, the northmost planting in Santa Barbara’s Santa Maria Valley AVA, and the Pali Estate Vineyard in renowned Sta. Rita Hills. Together they provide the concentrated fruit core, juicy vibrancy, and dense structure of the 2017 Huntington, while seamlessly integrated new and neutral oak provide supple polish and spice, rounding out one of the most robust $20 Pinot Noirs we’ve ever seen. 

Until recently, most of the Pali Wine Co. Huntington Pinot Noir was swallowed up by zealous tasting room visitors. Despite our best efforts, we could never get an allocation. But now, while the festivities are temporarily on pause, we put a bid in, and finally won. Get it while you can.