I know, how can we call it the Pinot of the Year when its only August? We are that confident.
We tasted Alta Heights earlier this year, and immediately went into our wine club and the hands of everyone coming in looking for American Pinot. This is "Mountain Pinot" at its finest.
For the last 20 years, winemakers Sean Castorani and Joanna Wells have chased one thing: California’s wild mountain vineyards. Their wines don’t follow trends, they break them. And after two decades, they felt uninspired by the wines they had to make. “Most of what’s out there left us bored. “We wanted something real.”, they said.
The duo first met at the famed Robert Sinskey Vineyards in Napa, bonding over biodynamics--burying cow horns and bigger dreams. From there, they continued to sharpen their craft with some of California’s best: Sean at Rhys Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Joanna at Kutch Wines in Sonoma.
Alta Heights was born in the 2021 vintage. Every vineyard they touch sits above 1,000 feet (the Pinot is over 2000!), far from the easy valley floors where the majority of fruit comes from for the big names. These mountain sites are raw, rocky, and uncompromising—exactly what they’re after. In Sean's words: “AVAs are Just marketing gimmicks. The mountains speak louder than the labels.”
Everything they source is organically farmed, often from vineyards planted by winemakers themselves. “If a winemaker planted it, you know it was designed to make great wine.” In the cellar, it’s minimal intervention all the way: native ferments, long élevage, zero tricks. Just patience, purity, and the push-pull of oxidative and reductive winemaking.
The result is exactly what we fell in love with. Wines that taste like the mountains themselves—alive, untamed, and impossible to ignore.
The Pinot is 100% sourced from vineyards in Mendocino Coastal Ridge AVA, all with over 2000 feet in elevation. 10% whole bunch with 90% de-stemmed, fermented with native yeast in old 1 ton open top wood fermenters and then aged for 9 months in mostly neautral French oak (just 10% new). No additions but minimal so2 to keep the wine nice and clean.
Our eyes lit up when we first tried Alta Heights, with a unanimous "Whoaaaa". The supple but impeccably balanced fruit was pure and energetic. It strikes the perfect balance of concentration and freshness. Super drinkable, fully flavored California heritage pinot noir from the greatest appellation you've probably never heard of - the Mendocino Coastal Ridge!
Truly one of the greatest under $30 Pinots available, and an absolute steal at this price!
We are offering 10% off of 6, and 20% off of 12 bottles!
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