Pisoni is one of the founding estates of the Santa Lucia Highlands Gary Pisoni stuck Pinot Noir vines in this windy, sun-drenched bench above the Salinas Valley back in 1982, when the AVA didn’t even exist yet. Today the family sells fruit to a who’s who of California Pinot (Kosta Browne, Roar, and many more), but their own estate bottling is the benchmark expression. Mark Pisoni runs the vineyards; brother Jeff makes the wine, working in small lots with native yeasts. This is the family’s home block the source that started it all and it shows the full Pisoni signature: dark, intense, spicy, and unmistakably Santa Lucia Highlands.