Sun & Earth 2022

A Stolpman & Solorzano Legacy
In 2014, we partnered with legendary viticulturalist Ruben Solorzano to select grapes from his top vineyards and make the Santa Barbara County red blend, Para Maria.  While Para Maria has always delivered many weight-classes above its bottle cost, we knew that Ruben yearned to create his own estate and make a world class wine sparing no expense.  In 2016, the Stolpmans gave Ruben and Maria the 4 acre parcel above their home on the Ballard Canyon Estate to do just that.   
Ruben own-rooted Grenache, Mourvèdre, and Syrah vines at the extremely high density of 6,000 vines/acre to limit the yield per vine and heighten concentration. All work must be done by hand without the space for mechanization.
The wine is created in the vineyard as Ruben is hyper-focused on training each different varietal to ripen together to allow for co-fermenting.  The flavor profiles marry while still grape juice and transform into wine as one seamless wine.  Ruben selects only his favorite sub-lots to classify as Sun+Earth, often with only 10-12% of the wine making the cut.    
Sun+Earth is the English translation of Maria and Ruben’s surname, Solorzano. 
A second year of drought reduced our 2022 yields and led to a small crop.  Our vines naturally set only a few tiny clusters each.  A Labor Day heatwave further intensified the ripe flavor concentration of the tiny clusters.  After thinning passes in mid-September, we returned to cherry pick for 2022 Sun+Earth in mid-October for optimal concentration and ripeness.
Deep luxurious red fruit from the nose through the body complimented by poached plums and vanilla bean ice cream. Pure and gushing fruit makes this 7th edition of Sun+Earth perhaps the most decadent yet.  A most subtle scent of hanging ferns is the only savory framing trace, but it’s fleeting behind the torrent of red fruit.