Whitcraft Winery, Santa Barbara County, La Cuna Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017
When Drake Whitcraft took over the family winery in 2007 (the winery was founded two decades before, in 1985 by his parents, Chris and Kathleen) his goal was to make balanced Central Coast wine of purity, honesty, and finesse. Because he grew up within the culture of wine and California winemaking, he was perpetually under the tutelage of both father Chris and friend Burt Williams, founder of the legendary Williams-Selyem winery in Sonoma. During a two year stint in Australia working at Green Vineyards with first-generation Italo-Australian and biodynamic guru Sergio Carlei, he got a good taste of certain practices he wanted to implement, not only in the vineyard and winery but also on the business side. Now Drake is vinifying with the same old school techniques his dad used (hand-harvesting, foot-pressing etc, no added enzymes or coloration) and with much veneration to Mother Nature herself.
He uses some biodynamic practices to produce Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Grenache of distinction; he does not de-stem or add water. Drake has chosen to inoculate only with the Williams Selyem strain, a yeast native to the Jackass Hill portion of Lino Martinelli’s Zinfandel vineyard on the Russian River. “It’s a super yeast,” he says “guaranteed to ferment.” Whole cluster fermentation is never subject to pump over and the wines are not racked off the lees. He hand fills and hand corks each bottle. The wine receives just enough SO2 to stabilize it, and the production is super small.
The resulting wines are clean and impeccably balanced. They represent a cross section of the emerging class of site-specific wines coming out of Central Coast California today.
Pickup available at VENICE STUDIO
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Mixed Format Shipping
- Only same formats can ship in same container (750ml with 750ml).
- Marie-Jeanne (2.5L), Jeroboam and larger format require manual shipping invoicing - INQUIRE for pre-purchase Quote
- Supplemental shipping charge may apply for mixed format orders after checkout.
- Best Practice: purchase in separate orders
Shipping Services Available
- Ground | ships Monday - Tuesday.
- 2DAY | ships Monday - Wednesday.
- Nextday | ships Monday-Thursday.
- Some Expedited Services are invoiced separately depending on destination.
- UPS pre-paid shipping rate good for 7 days. Pre-paid rates that ship after 7 days from purchase may be subject to supplemental charges and/or storage fees.
Most economical quantity to ship
- 6 standard bottles or 12 standard bottles
➡️ LEARN MORE
- PRE-ARRIVAL offers are products that we source from either our large network of North American private collections or our partnerships with European suppliers or Domaines.
- ESTIMATED TIME of ARRIVAL: Unless otherwise stated in the individual product page our Pre-Arrivals are estimated to land in Los Angeles within 30-50 days or so from upload date. Inquire for specific dates for the item you are interested in.
- BOTTLE CONDITIONS: as these are pre-arrivals our final label and ullage descriptions are not yet included. If you have concerns inquire and we will do our best to get answers.
- PRICES: published prices are commensurate with bottles in good condition for their kind and age. Most will be in "excellent" to "pristine" based on how we select wines to represent in our store.
- Custodial chain for our Pre-Arrival wines are temperature controlled professional logistics carriers, licensed or bonded warehouses.
- Pre-arrival wines not eligible for promotional shipping rates
- Pre-arrival wines not eligible for promotional discounting
- We will contact you when your order is ready to ship. You will also be notified via email when you will need to select a shipping date. Shipping will be FOB Chapter 4 Venice, CA.
- ALL SALES FINAL
- NON-REFUNDABLE
- We reserve the right to cancel and refund in full any pre-arrival order at any time for any reason.
