The wine is a product of the first of several new vineyard blocks we planted in 2006/07, this one at John O’Donnel’sbeautiful Watch Hill Vineyard – a beautiful hilltop block planted mostly to Roussanneand lesser percentages of Marsanneand Viognier. (Full disclosure: a little bit of Bien NacidoChardonnay also snuck its way into this wine - but, hey that’s OK, this is Sanguis - everything goes).

Wine maker notes

When I was a kid our family once went on a winter trip to north Africa and what was then the epitome of an exotic place for a 12-year old German boy, chilled to the bones from months of damp, gray winter. We finally arrived – after flight delays in Munich due to a snowstorm, and more delays in Tunisia (evidently due to a sandstorm) – around midnight. The first thing that hit the young German boy as he exited the old DC-9 (or DC-whatever – it was old) was the warm breeze heavy with the intoxicating scents of the abundant blood orange blossoms and night jasmine planted there. This wine is as close to that experience as it gets (and the experience is probably at least 29.7% responsible for the choice of my current profession and passion for things that smell great...especially at night)

Producer

Wines that are singular, compelling and beautiful rely on great vineyards and proper farming in union with a healthy dose of confidence, determination and style. Like great food, they can not exist without superior 'raw materials', the land where those are grown, or without a steady hand to shape them. "The proper manner of calligraphy is nothing other than not being careless. But in this way one’s writing will be simply sluggish and stiff. One should go beyond this and depart from the norm. This principle applies to all things." (From Hagakure, the book of the Samuray) Sanguis wines are made in a converted warehouse in the heart of Santa Barbara's industrial zone (yes, there is one), from the grapes that we grow in the idyl that is called the Santa Ynez and Santa Maria Valleys - this juxtaposition is representative of the style of wine that is Sanguis.