2019 Lumen Pinot Noir Presqu'ile Vineyard Santa Maria Valley 750 ml

This is the epitome of cool-climate elegance authored by one of Santa Barbara’s most dedicated Pinot purists—the inimitable Lane Tanner, a recent finalist for Wine Enthusiast’s Winemaker of the Year, alongside titans like Stéphane Derenoncourt and Dave Phinney.

Together with partner Will Henry, Lane has turned Lumen into a small-production label with an outsized following.

The first independent female winemaker in Santa Barbara County, Lane has been a trailblazer in more ways than one. Throughout her career—previously heading up winemaking at Firestone, Zaca Mesa, and the Hitching Post—she has eschewed oak, stem inclusion, and sulfur long before it was cool. Today, her reputation as a Pinot savant is such that winemakers in the area often wait to taste their fruit until she’s called her pick!

Tutored by André Tchelistcheff, an icon of California winemaking, she explains her picking strategy thusly. If you wanted to eat a peach at peak deliciousness, would you allow it to hang until it was squishy and mottled?

No—when you go to bite into a peach, you want that perfect balance of firmness and softness, acidity and sugars, juicy flavors that pop in your mouth with penetrating clarity. That’s exactly what you get with this 2019 Lumen Pinot Noir in the glass.

Famous for picking for vibrancy, Lane’s done some of her finest work on Santa Maria Valley’s renowned Presqu’ile Vineyard. Situated on ancient sand dunes a short distance from the Pacific, Presqu'ile Vineyard’s sandy soils, tempered by coastal freshness, created a wine at the peak of freshness, ripeness, beauty…everything. Only 110 cases were made.