Sandlands

History

Sandlands is the project of Tegan Passalacqua, who built his reputation over many years as head winemaker at Turley Wine Cellars, where he worked extensively with old-vine Zinfandel and Petite Sirah across California's warmer inland regions. That work gave him deep familiarity with the ancient, dry-farmed vineyards of Lodi and Contra Costa County, places that much of the California wine industry had overlooked in favor of cooler coastal appellations. Sandlands grew out of that knowledge, with Passalacqua sourcing from some of the same growers and old blocks he had come to know professionally. The label is named for the sandy, often wind-deposited soils that characterize many of its source vineyards. It operates as a small, focused negociant-style project rather than an estate, meaning the wines depend entirely on long-standing relationships with growers rather than owned land.

Vineyards

The source vineyards span several distinct regions, with Lodi and Contra Costa County forming the core. Both areas share a reliance on deep sandy soils, which drain quickly, stress the vines, and, crucially, were never hospitable to phylloxera, meaning many blocks are planted on their own roots and are genuinely old, in some cases over a century. Lodi sits in the northern San Joaquin Valley, tempered by afternoon winds off the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that moderate what would otherwise be punishing summer heat. Contra Costa County, centered around the towns of Oakley and Brentwood, is even more sheltered but similarly sandy and wind-cooled. Sandlands also sources from San Benito County and the Santa Lucia Highlands for specific wines, reflecting Passalacqua's interest in variety over regional purity. Farming practices at the source vineyards tend toward dry-farming and minimal intervention, though full certification details vary by grower and are not uniformly documented.

Winemaking

The winemaking is deliberately unobtrusive. Passalacqua works with native yeasts and keeps cellar additions minimal. Whole-cluster fermentation appears in some reds, and the wines generally see neutral oak or large-format vessels rather than new barrique, keeping wood influence low and variety expression clear. The result across the range is wines that read as fresher and more structured than their warm-region origins might suggest. The Carignane and Mataro, grapes that California's bulk wine industry once used for blending and little else, are among the most distinctive wines in the lineup: savory, firm, and age-worthy. The rosé wines, including both a Mourvedre version and the Kirschenbloom bottling, are dry and textural rather than light and fruity. Sandlands does not chase extraction, and the Red Table Wine bottlings, sourced from Lodi and Contra Costa, function as honest everyday wines made under the same low-intervention approach as the single-variety releases.