Santa Barbara's Sta Rita Hills

If there is one part of Santa Barbara County that most embodies everything that makes the region special, it’s the Sta Rita Hills American Viticultural Area (always appearing as Sta Rita Hills on wine labels thanks to a compromise made with Chilean producer Santa Rita). It fully deserves its own tasting article both because its wines alone made up nearly half of those I tasted in my recent survey of Santa Barbara County wines, but also because the region itself stands apart both literally and...