History
Like Radian, Bentrock was planted around 2007 by Premier Pacific Vineyards on the old Rancho Canada de Salsipuedes grant, and passed to Stan and Ann Kroenke with the 2014 purchase that created The Hilt estate. Before the two names came into use the fruit from this ground was sold simply as Salsipuedes. Matt Dees makes the wine and Coastal Vineyard Care farms it organically, without herbicide or pesticide. The name is geological: bentrock describes sedimentary layers that bent rather than fractured when the earth's crust moved beneath them, which is what happened here.
The Site
Close to 100 acres, the easternmost of the estate's three vineyards, on north-facing ground that looks south over the Santa Ynez River and west toward Radian. Elevation runs from about 400 to a little over 500 feet, and the hills are long and rolling rather than steep, so the rows run longer and the farming is simply easier. The soils are clay, sediment and shale with diatomaceous outcrops, and Santa Lucia shaly clay loam and Tierra sandy loam higher up. The grain is coarser and better draining than Radian's powder, and it reads to the eye as actual soil rather than chalk dust, reddish and iron-rich.
Vines and Blocks
Around 13 and a half acres of Chardonnay with the remainder, some 80 acres, in Pinot Noir. The clonal picture is described estate-wide as Dijon and heritage material; buyers drawing named blocks report Pinot Noir on 113, 115, 667 and 777, and Dragonette works a rare block of Chardonnay clone 76. No named sub-blocks are published in the way Radian has its Pinot Bowl, though producers refer to individual blocks informally, one of them carrying a vein of shale through its northern half. Where The Hilt uses no new oak at Radian, it does use some here, to frame the fruit.
The Wines
The Hilt bottles Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and the outside roster is wide: Sandhi, Racines, Tyler, Dragonette, Babcock, Bellante, Dusty Nabor and Liquid Farm, the last using it as a blending component rather than alone. The contrast with Radian is the point most critics reach for. Jeb Dunnuck framed the estate blend as a balance between the darkness of Radian and the generosity of Bentrock, and Dees describes the Pinot Noir here as balanced, fruit-driven and powerful, carrying the crushed-raspberry signature of the appellation.