Ceritas Cabernet Sauvignon Peter Martin Ray Vineyard 2016

97+ Points- Antonio Galloni, Vinous

Partners in wine and in life, John Raytek and his wife, Phoebe Bass, are privileged to farm across three distinctively marginal climates and geologies: the Santa Cruz Mountains, the West Sonoma Coast, and the Anderson Valley. They are active participants in the daily cultivation of these sites, and in many cases they are the sole recipients of this prized fruit.

Since starting this project in 2005 when John left Arnot Roberts, the two have prioritized making exceptional single-vineyard wines from throughout the best locations in California that speak to the unique terroir of each site.

Their wine allocation waitlist is over two years long. A top sommelier at one of the best restaurants in California told the San Francisco Chronicle, “We take all they allocate to us, and we’ll take anyone else’s allocation who doesn’t want it. In a good year, he gets “nothing more than a couple cases” of Ceritas. 

The reason for this is simple: over the course of the last decade plus, the husband and wife have combined to make some of the most interesting wines around. They have built a reputation largely on their Pinot Noir and Chardonnays but that is not the case with the 2016 Peter Martin Ray Vineyard bottling. Using the unique site, directly across from the famous, Montebello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, they were able to make a wine that Antonio Galloni gave 97+ Points (his highest Ceritas score ever) and called it a tremendous showing and a “jewel of a wine”.