Sleepy Hollow Terroir | Santa Lucia Highlands

Tradition and Excellence

A Legacy of Elegance

With four decades of meticulous craftsmanship, Talbott celebrates the nuances of each vintage. To sustain our legacy of exceptional wines from this celebrated vineyard, our stewards in the vineyard and winery thoughtfully pursue innovation to ensure the longevity of our land and vines.

Precision Viticulture: Farming to the Vine

Information is a powerful ally. Soil mapping—a meticulous electro magnetic imaging of every inch of Sleepy Hollow—yields 80 facets of vital information about the terrain, from magnesium concentrations to water-holding capacity. The data helps our viticulture team develop planting strategies tailored to the unique characteristics of each section of our vineyard—per block, row, and vine.

Insights from soil mapping also allow the vineyard team to match rootstocks to the terrain and align with the winemaking team to select compatible clones. This micro-targeted approach to farming can transform a single block into a mosaic of multiple rootstocks and clone combinations adapted to slope, aspect, and soil, among other inputs.

Terroir and Clones: Driving the Flavor Profile

Winemaker Kamee Knutson sees Pinot Noir as a tale of terroir. She explores micro-terroir distinctions, believing the soil composition of each block and row plays a pivotal role in shaping the expression of the finished wine.

Kamee takes inspiration from her passion for teas, appreciating the nuanced layers of base, middle and top notes in a cup. Every vintage prompts an exploration of which clones serve as the perfect notes. For Chardonnay, she credits the capacity to create a diverse range of wine styles more to the individual clones. While Chardonnay is often considered a blank canvas, a grape that allows for creative manipulation, she believes the stylistic range remains constrained if limited to just one clone.

Crafting Excellence

The Vineyard Tells a Story

Talbott Vineyards is dedicated to translating our acclaimed Sleepy Hollow Vineyard into every bottle we make.

The winemakers of Talbott Vineyards are keepers of a great history. When our viticulture team has ensured optimal conditions for the fruit to flourish, Kamee can gracefully step back, employ a gentle touch in the cellar, and allow Sleepy Hollow’s inherent brilliance to take center stage.

Armed with intelligence, grounded in sustainability, and honoring our legacy, winemakers and farmers contribute to the ongoing narrative of the SleepyHollow Vineyard. As stewards of the land, they accomplish this by keen observation, attentive listening, and skillfully articulating the vineyard’s nuances to ensure that each parcel, each vintage, adds a distinctive chapter to the enduring story of Sleepy Hollow Vineyard’s rich history.

*Wine Enthusiast