History
Joseph was among the earliest to commit seriously to Pinot Noir on this stretch of Santa Rosa Road, and Fiddlestix became one of the most widely designated vineyards in the appellation, with something close to twenty wineries buying from it. She was also among the first in Santa Barbara County to plant Gruner Veltliner here. In December 2021 the vineyard was sold to a group led by Justin Willett of Tyler Winery with Erik Mallea and Todd Gray of Willett-Mallea Farming and William Borgers of Ventura Coastal; the new owners have said they intend to add Chardonnay. Fiddlehead Cellars continues as a label and still uses the Fiddlestix name on its own bottling, so the winery's product name and the vineyard are now two different things under two different owners.
The Site
Reported at 100 acres by the trade press covering the sale, or 96 planted acres of a 133 acre property by Fiddlehead's own account. It sits at mile marker 7.28 on Santa Rosa Road, on the north side of the tight east-west valley, where the fog holds until mid-morning. The soils are well-drained Gazos and Botella clay loam laden with Monterey shale and chert. No elevation figure is published for the site. Sea Smoke's estate sits above it.
Vines and Blocks
Predominantly Pinot Noir, farmed as thirty-two small blocks across varying elevation and exposure, planted to six clones on three rootstocks. The clone numbers are not published. That block count against a hundred acres is the notable figure here: this is a vineyard designed from the start to be sold in pieces to many buyers, and its structure reflects that.
The Wines
The designate roster is unusually broad. Fiddlehead's own Fiddlestix bottling leads it, with Ancien, Anglim, Bonaccorsi, Cold Heaven, Dragonette, the Hitching Post, Pali, Prodigal, RN Estate, Rusack and Vogelzang among current buyers, and Arcadian, Ampelos, Gainey, Jonata, Paul Lato, Summerland, Tyler and Westerly among those who have bottled it in the past. Few Sta. Rita Hills vineyards have put their name on so many labels.