A highly accomplished Pinot Noir made from grapes from John Sebastiano Vineyard on the edge of the Santa Rita Hills.
Only 42% of the grapes were destemmed, and the rest was fermented as whole clusters. Aged for 21 months in 228L and 500L neutral oak barrels.
It has aromas of forest floor, truffle oil, candied cherries and ethnic spices. It also has the aroma of cassis and slightly sweet oak. It has a clean, concentrated taste and fine tannins, and goes well with beef dishes.
The annual production volume of the boutique winery "Sanguis" in Santa Barbara does not reach 1200 cases. Nevertheless, the wines made by Matthias Pippig have received an astonishing average score of 93.4 points from wine rating agencies since the company was founded, and most of these wines are very rare and can only be purchased by members of the mailing list (currently not accepting new members).
Pippig came to the US from Germany at the age of 18 with the dream of becoming a rock musician, but found that the American music industry was very different from what he had imagined, so he started working at a restaurant in Los Angeles. Later, he met Manfred Krankl, who founded the cult wine brand Cine Qua Non at the popular La Brea Bakery at the time, and they discussed their future plans. In the mid-1990s, Frankl started a wine business, but Pippig waited patiently for his chance and launched Sanguis in 2004. Pippig uses grapes from the Central Coast, mainly from famous vineyards around Santa Barbara. All of the farmers use sustainable farming methods to produce high-quality grapes with low production volumes.
He never formally studied oenology, but learned while working for free at a local winery. What he values is not the method or order of production, but rather quality. Pippig believes that each wine variety and each vintage has its own personality, so he designs everything himself, from the name of the wine to the label design, breathing life into each one. For this reason, there are no descriptions of the taste or aroma in the tasting notes of the wines he makes. Instead, he describes the scene or atmosphere that is depicted by drinking the wine, and sometimes writes about the food that should be paired with it or the music that should be listened to.