Tyler Winery

The story

Ten Years Before the Land

In 2015, after ten years of farming parcels he did not own, Justin Willett and his wife Amanda bought 28 acres in Sta. Rita Hills and started planting. The decision came at the end of a decade in which Tyler had built a real following on grower fruit alone, and the single-vineyard bottlings that defined the upper tier of the range were made entirely on the goodwill of long-term relationships with Sanford and Benedict, La Rinconada, and La Encantada. When the land at Mae came available, he and Amanda bought it and began planting Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah on the same cold, foggy western exposure that had produced the grapes he had worked with since 2005. The first estate fruit took years to reach the winery. The partnership vineyards continued alongside it. Today, Mae Estate is the only land Tyler owns, and it sits at the top of a range that still depends on those grower relationships beneath it.

Ten Years Before the Land

In 2015, after ten years of farming parcels he did not own, Justin Willett and his wife Amanda bought 28 acres in Sta. Rita Hills and started planting. The decision came at the end of a decade in which Tyler had built a real following on grower fruit alone, and the single-vineyard bottlings that defined the upper tier of the range were made entirely on the goodwill of long-term relationships with Sanford and Benedict, La Rinconada, and La Encantada. When the land at Mae came available, he and Amanda bought it and began planting Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah on the same cold, foggy western exposure that had produced the grapes he had worked with since 2005. The first estate fruit took years to reach the winery. The partnership vineyards continued alongside it. Today, Mae Estate is the only land Tyler owns, and it sits at the top of a range that still depends on those grower relationships beneath it.

From the atlas

Tyler Winery

At A Glance

The Producer

Justin Willett was 24 and still drawing an assistant winemaker's salary when he started Tyler in 2005. He had no estate land and no established name, only a few barrels of Sta. Rita Hills fruit and a clear idea of what he wanted the wines to be: light-bodied, mineral, built on acidity rather than oak weight, and shaped by the particular character of each vineyard he worked with.

The range is anchored in two grapes, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, grown across partnership vineyards and the family-owned Mae Estate in the Sta. Rita Hills appellation, the cooler, windier western end of Santa Barbara County. Mae Estate is a 28-acre parcel planted to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah that Justin and his wife Amanda Willett purchased in 2015. It is the only land Tyler owns. Everything below the estate tier comes from long-term partnerships with named growers, among them Sanford and Benedict, La Rinconada, and La Encantada.

The wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered. That choice, alongside organic farming, nighttime harvesting, and native yeast fermentation, points consistently toward the same goal: less intervention between what the vineyard produces and what ends up in the glass.

Place

Sta. Rita Hills is a federally recognised American Viticultural Area at the western edge of the Santa Ynez Valley, where an east-west corridor in the coastal mountains pulls cold Pacific air directly across the vineyards. The effect is pronounced: fog rolls in most mornings, afternoon winds drive temperatures down sharply, and grapes ripen slowly relative to the rest of Santa Barbara County. The result in the wine is high natural acidity, lower alcohol, and an aromatic freshness that would be harder to achieve ten miles east.

The Santa Barbara County appellation covers a wider, warmer band and includes fruit from multiple sites across the county. Tyler uses it as the entry tier of the range, drawing on the same grape varieties and winemaking approach but across a broader climate envelope. The label wording marks the difference: Santa Barbara County for the wider blend, Sta. Rita Hills for the cooler, more specific western parcels, and single-vineyard names for the individual sites.

Soil And Site

Sta. Rita Hills is defined primarily by its climate rather than by a single soil type. The appellation sits at elevations where morning fog and persistent afternoon wind are the main factors shaping how fruit develops. The partnership vineyards Tyler works with, Sanford and Benedict, La Rinconada, and La Encantada, all sit within this fog and wind corridor. Mae Estate, planted in 2015, adds 28 acres of estate fruit to the same cool zone. Specific soil profiles at individual parcels are not confirmed in available sources.

Story

Tyler was built on other people's land for its first decade. Willett sourced from named growers, built relationships parcel by parcel, and released wines under a winery name that had no property attached to it. That arrangement was common enough for small California producers in 2005, but sustaining it for ten years while building a recognisable style required something more than convenience: it required growers who trusted what Willett was doing with their fruit, and a market willing to follow a label that moved from site to site.

In 2015, he and Amanda committed to the land directly. They bought 28 acres in Sta. Rita Hills and began planting. Mae Estate took years before it produced estate-tier wine, which meant the partnership model continued alongside the new planting rather than being replaced by it. Today the range carries both: grower fruit from Sanford and Benedict, La Rinconada, and La Encantada on one side, and estate fruit from Mae on the other. The winemaking approach is the same across both tiers.

Vineyards And Cellar

Organic farming limits synthetic fertilisers and pesticides at the vine, pushing the plant toward a more active root system and, in theory, a more varied mineral uptake from the soil below. Nighttime harvesting brings fruit into the winery at lower ambient temperatures, which slows oxidation and preserves the aromatic compounds in the grape skin before fermentation begins. Both choices reduce the amount of correction needed later.

Fermentation uses native yeasts present on the grape skins rather than commercially selected strains. Native fermentations are slower and less predictable, but they tend to produce wines with a more layered aromatic profile and a tighter connection to the specific harvest conditions of a given year. The wines are pressed and aged, then bottled without fining agents or filtration. Fining removes particles and softens tannin; filtration clarifies. Skipping both preserves more texture, fruit detail, and material from the fermentation in the finished wine.

Wines

The range has four tiers. The Santa Barbara County tier covers Pinot Noir and Chardonnay sourced from multiple sites across the broader county appellation. These are the most accessible bottles in terms of price and availability, and they carry the clearest version of Tyler's signature: light-bodied, mineral, and built on freshness rather than weight.

Above that sits the Sta. Rita Hills tier, drawing exclusively on the cooler western parcels where fog and wind reduce ripeness and sharpen acidity. The single-vineyard tier names the individual grower partnerships: Sanford and Benedict, La Rinconada, and La Encantada each appear as separate bottlings, showing how the same winemaking approach reads differently across different exposures and altitudes within the appellation.

Mae Estate forms the fourth tier, with estate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the 28 acres planted in 2015. Syrah is also grown at Mae, though estate Syrah bottlings are not confirmed across all vintages. Across all tiers, the Chardonnay runs light-bodied with jasmine, citrus rind, and orchard blossom on the nose, mineral and tangy through the mid-palate, and finishes with a zesty, mineral-drenched quality that keeps the palate active. The Pinot Noir carries tart red fruit alongside leather, cedar, exotic spice, and lavender, with powdery tannins and a silky, savory palate that stays lifted by acidity rather than weighted by fruit concentration.

In The Glass

The Chardonnay opens with clean floral aromatics: jasmine, orchard blossom, and citrus rind. On the palate it begins focused and taut, then expands gradually through the mid-palate without losing the line of acidity that runs beneath it. The finish is zesty and mineral, with a tangy quality that carries longer than the light body would suggest. No obvious oak weight. The overall impression is of a white wine that is more nervous than broad.

The Pinot Noir rises from the glass with tart red cherry, dried lavender, and cedar, shading into leather and a spice-box quality, making the nose more complex than the price tier usually delivers. On the palate the tannins are fine and powdery rather than firm or grippy, and the acidity is lifted enough to make the fruit feel brighter than it is. The mouthfeel is silky, the profile savory, and the finish carries the spice notes from the nose into a clean, dry close. Both wines share the same underlying logic: California fruit made in a way that reads closer to Burgundy in weight and feel.

A Bottle To Understand It

The Santa Barbara County Chardonnay is the right starting point. It is a county-wide blend of Chardonnay from Sta. Rita Hills and the broader appellation, bottled without fining or filtration and fermented with native yeasts. In the glass it gives jasmine, citrus rind, and orchard blossom aromas, a dynamic and mineral palate that begins tight and fresh before opening through the mid-palate, and a long zesty finish drenched in chalky minerality. The body is light, the acidity is the main event, and there is no oak character to push the wine toward a richer California white style. It is not an expensive bottle, and it demonstrates clearly what Tyler is doing differently: taking a familiar California Chardonnay appellation and making something that tastes like it came from a cooler, more northerly address.

Anecdote

In 2015, after ten years of farming parcels he did not own, Justin Willett and his wife Amanda bought 28 acres of land in Sta. Rita Hills and started planting. The decision sounds straightforward, but it came at the end of a decade in which Tyler had built a real following on grower fruit alone. Willett had no guarantee that the partnership vineyards he had relied on would remain available indefinitely, and the single-vineyard bottlings that defined the upper tier of the range were made entirely on the goodwill of long-term relationships. When the land at Mae came available, he and Amanda bought it and began planting Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah on the same cold, foggy western exposure that had produced the grapes he had been working with since 2005. The first estate fruit took years to reach the winery. The partnership vineyards continued alongside it. Today, Mae Estate is the only land Tyler owns, and it sits at the top of a range that still depends on those same grower relationships beneath it.

Final Word

Tyler is a California producer that has spent twenty years making the case, one barrel at a time, that Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir and Chardonnay can be light, mineral, and built primarily on acidity rather than fruit weight or oak. The wines are unfined, unfiltered, and made from organically farmed fruit picked at night to preserve aromatics. The range runs from a county-wide entry tier to named single-vineyard parcels and estate fruit from Mae. Start with the Santa Barbara County Chardonnay to understand what the approach produces at its most transparent.

Sources

• https://www.skurnik.com/producer/tyler-winery/
• https://www.skurnik.com/sku/chardonnay-santa-barbara-county-tyler-winery-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2/
• https://www.skurnik.com/sku/pinot-noir-santa-barbara-county-tyler-winery-2-2-2-2-2-2-2/