In a decade when California wine was getting bigger, riper, and higher in alcohol, a small Sta. Rita Hills label set out to prove the opposite was possible. Sandhi, a Sanskrit word for union, has spent its life joining cold-climate fruit to old-world restraint.

An argument for balance

Sandhi was founded in 2011 by Rajat Parr, one of the most influential sommeliers in America, and the winemaker Sashi Moorman. The two shared a conviction that bordered on a crusade: that the great cold sites of the Sta. Rita Hills could make Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of real freshness and tension, wines of lower alcohol, higher acidity, and the ability to age, in deliberate contrast to the ripe, oaky California style of the time. Parr went on to help lead In Pursuit of Balance, the movement that reshaped how California makes Chardonnay and Pinot. Sandhi was the argument poured into a glass.

The winemaking matches the philosophy: cold, often windswept Sta. Rita Hills vineyards, including the historic Sanford and Benedict site, native fermentations, restrained oak, and a refusal to push the fruit past its natural line. Sandhi is a sister project to Domaine de la Cote, sharing the same exacting hands.

Lower alcohol, higher acid, nothing forced. Sandhi made elegance the point.

The wines

Sandhi is a Chardonnay and Pinot Noir house in the Burgundian mold. The Chardonnays are taut, saline, and built on citrus and stone rather than tropical fruit and butter. The Pinot Noirs are perfumed, savory, and light on their feet, more about energy and detail than power. These are wines made for the table, and for the cellar.

Sandhi started in 2010, the project of Rajat Parr, the sommelier and wine director who ran the lists for Michael Mina’s restaurants, and winemaker Sashi Moorman. Both had fallen for the Sta. Rita Hills years earlier, and after a 2009 Sanford & Benedict Chardonnay convinced them, they launched in earnest. The wines were a deliberate argument: that California could make Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with the freshness, lower alcohol, and acid drive of white Burgundy rather than the ripe, oaky style that dominated at the time.

The method has barely changed in fifteen years. Sandhi buys Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from responsibly farmed vineyards across the Sta. Rita Hills and wider Santa Barbara County, then vinifies them all the same way, so the differences you taste come from the sites rather than the cellar. The results are precise, mineral, and built for the table, the kind of bottles sommeliers reach for, which makes sense given who started it. The tasting room sits in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto, the unglamorous industrial-park cluster that has long been the working heart of Sta. Rita Hills winemaking.

What to drink it with

The mineral, high-acid Chardonnay is a dream with oysters, Dungeness crab, or a simple piece of grilled fish, where its acidity does the work of a squeeze of lemon and scrubs the palate clean. The bright Pinot Noir loves grilled salmon, seared duck, or a mushroom dish, meeting the earth of the plate on the same savory note. These are not wines that overpower food. They sharpen it.

Plan your visit

Sandhi is made in small quantities in the Sta. Rita Hills, near Lompoc. Production is limited, so the best way to follow the wines is through the winery directly. Check the winery site for current tasting options and releases.

Frequently asked questions