History
Sanford, who had proved the region a generation earlier, recommended the site. The Cargasacchis planted in 1998 and have farmed it since, selling roughly ninety percent of the crop to about ten wineries and keeping the rest for their own labels: Cargasacchi for the serious estate Pinot Noir, and Point Concepcion for lighter, earlier-drinking wines drawn from estate and purchased fruit. Whether the Cargasacchi label is still in production is unclear; verifiable listings thin out after the early 2010s.
The Site
Published acreage runs from twelve to sixteen. The vineyard lies off Sweeney Road in Sweeney Canyon at the far western end of the appellation, on a south-facing slope above the western reach of the Santa Ynez River, with Rancho La Vina across the canyon. The soils are Botella series clay and loam, calcareous and well draining, sitting within the vein of diatomaceous earth that runs diagonally across the appellation and shows in the chalk-white canyon walls. This is exposed, windy, genuinely cold ground. No elevation figure is published.
Vines and Blocks
One hundred percent Pinot Noir, and by every account a single clone, Dijon 115, on two rootstocks, 3309C and 420A. There are no named blocks. That singularity is the vineyard's defining fact and the reason producers who buy here talk about it as a control experiment: whatever varies between Cargasacchi bottlings is the season and the winemaking, not the plant material.
The Wines
Brewer-Clifton bottled a Cargasacchi designate across a decade of vintages from the early 2000s, and Siduri worked with the fruit from 2001. Loring, Bonaccorsi, SAMsARA and Ken Brown have all made the wine, alongside the family's own two labels. Two nearby names cause confusion and are worth separating: Cargasacchi-Jalama is a second, distinct vineyard the same family farms about five miles west toward Point Conception, and Jalama Wines is a different brand again, run by Mark Cargasacchi on part of the family ranch.