Santa Ynez Valley

The Santa Ynez Valley is quite a large viticultural area that spans an east-west region stretching from the coast to the San Rafael Mountains. The westernmost part of this appellation includes Santa Rita Hills, a cool climate area where Pinot Noir and Chardonnay flourish. But because of the transverse orientation of the valley, the cooling influence of the ocean dissipates as you move inland, with about a degree increase in temperature for every mile traveled east. Still enjoying long sunny days and cool evenings, the most eastern region of the Santa Ynez Valley AVA is warm – shall we even say comparatively hot – during the day. And located within that warmer area are vineyards that are perfectly suited for wine grape varietals that need the heat in order to fully ripen, including the noble Sauvignon Blanc.

We source Sauvignon Blanc from five vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley—Vogelzang, Grassini, and McGinley (formerly Westerly) Vineyards in the Happy Canyon area, Stolpman Vineyard, located on Ballard Canyon Road and La Pressa Vineyard, an original, old-vine Santa Ynez Valley planting. Working closely with Jeff Newton and Larry Finkle of Coastal Vineyard Care, we pay as much attention to our Sauvignon blocks as we do to the Pinot Noir in our own Fiddlestix Vineyard. The vineyards are cultivated with care and attention to detail, with low yields and the highest quality. To ensure that they are all farmed to Fiddlehead’s exacting requirements, we contract “by the acre”, rather than paying for the fruit by the ton. This allows us to custom farm “our” own blocks in these vineyards – routinely performing shoot and lateral thinning, leaf pulling, canopy management and crop reduction – and keep it fair to the owners, since our yields per acre are kept purposefully low. The result – fabulous wines!