SITE Wines, Stolpman Vineyards Roussanne

As the “Rhône Rangers” long ago proved, California has shown a special affinity for the grape varieties of France’s Rhône Valley—not just Syrah and Grenache, meanwhile, but the whites, too. Santa Barbara County has long been the epicenter of this movement, and three of its greatest vineyards are the heart of Jeremy Weintraub’s SITE wine lineup, which includes this stellar Roussanne from Stolpman Vineyards.Located in the cool, windy Ballard Canyon AVA, Stolpman is perhaps best-known for world-class Syrah, but 15 acres of their organically farmed, limestone-rich slopes are devoted to Roussanne, which rarely gets a starring role, even in its ancestral homeland. The 2015, which performs like a top-class Hermitage Blanc for a fraction of the price, will have you asking why—as in, “Why doesn’t Roussanne get top billing?” and “Why aren’t I drinking more Rhône whites?” The great accomplishment of this version from SITE is that it captures the ideal combination of texture and tension in a varie