Jonata & The Hilt Settle Into Permanent Home

For about 15 years, some of the most expensive and critically beloved wines in Santa Barbara County were made inside of cramped warehouses on the outskirts of Buellton. A chip shot away from the buzzing freeway, these nondescript, nearly windowless buildings were home to Jonata and The Hilt, some bottlings of which commanded $100-plus prices upon release.  

It was far from a bucolic wine country spread, and rather modest, given that the proprietor is billionaire Stanley Kroenke, who also owns the cult Napa winery Screaming Eagle as well as the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and Arsenal teams, among others. The original estate vineyard nearby in Ballard Canyon is perfectly pretty, but building a visitor-serving winery there wasn’t really in the political cards.

So in 2014, the winery — under the direction of longtime winemaker Matt Dees — purchased Rancho Salsipuedes on the extreme southwestern edge of the Sta. Rita Hills, just outside of Lompoc. The ranch’s increasingly celebrated Radian, Bentrock, and Puerta del Mar vineyards would support the pinot noir and chardonnay focus of The Hilt, which Dees started in 2008 as a Burgundian brother to pair with the Rhône and Bordeaux grapes of Jonata. But the 3,600-acre Salsipuedes also included space for an estate winery and hospitality complex.