Like Midas, every Pinot that Greg Brewer makes has a bit of specialness to it. This is a light-to-medium-bodied Pinot that is just starting to develop some secondary spicy wildness. There's still red plum and rosemary fruit, with a little pepper and thyme, too. It's quite a complex thing, with these layers of red fruit in among the undergrowthy spice to make for a proper, complete Pinot.

Located high above the university town of Santa Barbara, the Santa Rita Hills are one of California's more renowned Chardonnay and Pinot Noir hotspots. And few have been at the forefront of this region for as long as Greg Brewer, founder of Brewer-Clifton. Indeed, Greg has spent the entirety of his three-decade career dedicated to crafting cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from a rather finite stretch of land in Santa Barbara County. More than just a region, the Santa Rita Hills are a big part of Greg's whole identity. He went to uni in Santa Barbara and got a weekend job working at the cellar door of the Santa Barbara winery, where he decided that wine would be his life. In 1995, he co-founded Brewer-Clifton with his mate Steve Clifton, and it really kicked into gear. Under this label, Greg was one of the first people in the area to make wines that celebrated single vineyards rather than regional blends, in an era when the Santa Rita Hills AVA (American Viticultural Area, the US wine region system) didn't officially exist. Trailblazer and some!