2019 Oceano Pinot Noir Spanish Springs Vineyard San Luis Obispo Coast 750 ml

Near Pismo Beach along the San Luis Obispo coastline, the surfing is great, the clam chowder is phenomenal, and the Pinot Noir—well, it’s the stuff of dreams.

The 2019 Oceano Pinot Noir Spanish Springs Vineyard was grown here, on a single site 1.5 miles from the Pacific, in California’s coolest climate. Walking the vineyard, you can smell the briny ocean breeze and hear the crunch of marine shale and sandstone under your feet. Winegrowing doesn’t get much closer to the sea. All that cold salt air and mineral-rich soil invest this bottle with saline finesse, while the long growing season leaves the wine sleekly muscled, juicy as a fresh-picked strawberry, and delicately perfumed.

We first encountered this wine in a hushed, low-lit Manhattan dining room that is worlds away from the raw, pounding waves of Pismo Beach. In an evening filled with exquisite plates and pairings, the Pinot was the night’s greatest highlight. We wasted no time tracking it down.

Oceano co-owner Rachel Martin fell in love with the Spanish Springs Vineyard, located on the sandy, eastern flanks of Price Canyon, on her first visit there and immediately began purchasing grapes. The vineyard’s proximity to the ocean, the rich clonal variety of Pinot Noir grown there, and the mix of hillsides and exposures guarantee the kind of complexity for which buyers pay top dollar.

The beautiful 2019 vintage resulted in grapes that could boast both slowly accumulated sugars and bright, beautifully preserved acids. To capture all this natural beauty, Martin held nothing back in the cellar, employing whole-berry fermentation in tank followed by aging in Burgundy barrels for eight months.