Racines

### History Racines is a Santa Barbara County negociant-style project built around long-term relationships with established Santa Rita Hills growers rather than estate ownership. The name itself, French for "roots," signals the orientation: sourcing from vineyards with documented histories rather than planting new ground. The project has operated with a relatively low public profile, letting the vineyard roster do the talking. Details of its founding and ownership structure are not widely publicized, which is consistent with a number of small California negociant labels that prefer the wines to carry the story.

### Vineyards The lineup reads as a who's-who of Santa Rita Hills benchmarks. Sanford and Benedict, planted in the early 1970s in the western transverse valley, is among the oldest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay sites in Santa Barbara County and sits on diatomaceous and sandy loam soils with significant wind exposure from the Pacific. La Rinconada, farther west, is known for its clay-heavy soils and reliable cool-climate structure. Bentrock is a newer but well-regarded site with chalky, calcium-rich ground. Wenzlau Family Vineyard, in the hills north of Lompoc, offers a slightly more sheltered position while remaining firmly within the region's fog-influence zone. Farming practices across these sites vary by grower; Racines does not control the viticulture directly, and specific certifications for each site are not uniformly documented.

### Winemaking The wines are made in a reductive, low-intervention style that prioritizes freshness and site legibility over textural weight. Native or native-leaning fermentations appear consistent with the house aesthetic, and the oak program is restrained enough that wood rarely announces itself. The Chardonnays, particularly those from Bentrock and Sanford and Benedict, show a nervy, high-acid profile that places them closer to a Burgundian framework than to the richer, more oxidative style historically associated with California Chardonnay. The Pinot Noirs follow a similar logic: moderate extraction, cool-fruit aromatics, and enough acidity to suggest genuine aging potential. The Sta. Rita Hills cuvees function as appellation-level blends drawing from multiple sites, while the single-vineyard bottlings are the clearest expressions of the project's sourcing priorities.