It’s hard to talk about the 2020 vintage in Santa Barbara County without feeling some version of survivors’ guilt. The skies darkened from the Willamette Valley down through Napa, the sun obscured by so much wildfire smoke. But the skies over Bien Nacido and White Hawk Vineyards, far from fire and protected, this time, by the transverse mountain ranges funneling in clear ocean air, remained brightly, and almost glitteringly blue.

We shared some of our syrah with friends in Napa who wouldn’t have had fruit to work with otherwise and, as such, there’s proportionally less of the 2020 to share with all of you this year. This too a reflection of the vintage, less here/more there, light and seriousness, all of us coming together to share the best of what the West can be.

Lillian 2020 syrah Gold Series No.09

The 2020 syrah Gold Series No.9 was a special wine to blend. Seeing the look on Maggie’s face when this tiny, three-barrel blend was made told us it was complete: eyes closed, taking in the raw canvas nose and mica-like palate. The wine is a perfect marriage of fresh tobacco leaves— still sticky from the field, sappiness from the fruit and the tight grains in the wood like agave nectar and eucalyptus leaves. The freshness is followed by Monk’s Pepper Tree (Vitex agnus-castus) gracefully sliding in with oily black olive in tow. The wine lands on the tongue with the delicacy of flaky sea salt.

~Mimi Adams

Lillian 2020 syrah Gold Series No.10

The 2020 syrah Gold Series No.10 got the lion’s share of our fruit from White Hawk. The barrels from 2020 seemed to be born of aged green tea leaves and miso-charged salt, like brackish water from another planet. This wine falls into a special category of oceanic wines made from Lillian: where the texture leaves your palate salivating in the same way the mist of umami ocean waves lands on your lips and tongue. Sun-choked seaweed, calcareous rocks and dry-aged wagyu serve at the center of this wine.

~Mimi Adams

Lillian 2020 grenache

Grenache is its own beast in our cellar. You can see it before you even get to taste it, with its deep neon pink-to-red edges in the glass and cotton candy nose. The 2020 was no exception, so much so that every barrel we made naturally found its way into the final blend. While raised in only 34.7% new oak, the single new 600 liter puncheon provides a rigid, taught backbone; it holds you in place and re-centers your palate with the first sip. The second sip is where the neon intensity starts to shine. A combination of freshly oiled, fatty leather and cactus fruit hits you square in the jaw, followed by a rich blend of cardamom from the wood, red velvet cake from the fleshy fruit, and menthol spice at the tail end. Despite my wild notes, this wine is truly elegant with obsidian structure.

~Mimi Adams