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Earthy, herbal and spice-driven: nectarine, truffle honey and golden Russet apple meet honeysuckle, white peach and juicy Anjou pear over a savory, chalky backbone, with gunflint, jasmine, chervil and a touch of vanilla bean on the finish.
Available in store
Close100% Chardonnay
Food pairings: Richer seafood such as crab, lobster and other shellfish, grilled fish, soft-textured cheeses, and dishes built on herbs and butter.
Scores:
Winemaking: Winemaker Matt Dees, with associate winemaker Drew Pickering, built the 2023 from four lieu-dits within Bentrock: Rock Garden (clone 76), Red Earth (clone 95), Shale Plateau (clone 76) and The Spine (clone 96). The wine spent 11 months in French oak barrels, 45% of them new and the rest once- and twice-used, followed by six months in stainless steel tank on its full lees. The winery calls it perhaps the most inward and age-worthy Bentrock to date: power and density are the vineyard's hallmark, and the silky texture really shows on the second and third day after opening.
Vineyards and terroir: Bentrock is the easternmost vineyard of The Hilt Estate, in the far southwest corner of the Sta. Rita Hills, the part of the appellation nearest the Pacific. Its name is the geological term for sedimentary layers that bent rather than fractured. The rolling hills sit from about 400 to over 500 feet and recall Burgundy. The soils are clay, sediment and shale with outcrops of diatomaceous earth, giving way to Santa Lucia shaly clay loam and Tierra sandy loam higher up. The estate vineyards were first planted in 2006 and is farmed without herbicides or pesticides. Vineyard manager is Ruben Solórzano.
Family and history: The Hilt was founded in 2004 to make Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Sta. Rita Hills. Matt Dees spent years studying the appellation, which he describes as a 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, in search of a north-facing site close to the ocean. In the summer of 2014 The Hilt acquired a historic property in the southwest corner of the appellation that contains the Bentrock, Radian and Puerta del Mar vineyards. Single-vineyard bottlings began with the 2018 vintage.
In the pictures: Vines on The Hilt Estate in the Sta. Rita Hills at golden hour, and the estate's barn among the vineyards (photos courtesy of The Hilt Estate).
