Sandlands 2024 Carignane Contra Costa County

750ml botle
13.5% abv

Dense and brooding, with dark cherry, plum, incense, new leather, tobacco, and espresso on the palate. Full-bodied and ample, with intense dark-toned fruit building impressively through the mid-palate and finish.

100% Carignane. Planted in the 1920s on Dehli blow sand, a wind-deposited decomposed granite soil unique to the Contra Costa flatlands. Practicing organic. Dry-farmed, head-trained, own-rooted vines over 100 years old. 5 barrels produced.

Native yeast fermentation. Aged in used oak. No fining, no filtration. Minimal sulfur.

The Dehli blow sand produces Carignane of unusual power and density despite the variety's tendency toward lighter expression in other California regions.

Sandlands is the personal project of Tegan and Olivia Passalacqua, launched alongside Tegan's role as winemaker and vineyard manager at Turley Wine Cellars. The project is built around forgotten California varieties grown in old, multigenerational vineyards that have remained outliers in California viticulture, featuring Zinfandel, Mataro, Carignane, Trousseau, Chenin Blanc, and Syrah from sites in Contra Costa, Lodi, and Amador County. Tegan was named Winemaker of the Year by a major trade publication, and Sandlands is consistently cited as one of the most important small California producers working with heritage varieties. 

Tegan, a Napa Valley native, got his start in the wine industry working in winery labs in Napa. He has worked in the cellars of Craggy Range in New Zealand with Doug Wisor, with Eben Sadie in the Swartland of South Africa, and with Alain and Maxime Graillot in the Northern Rhone Valley of France. For the past twenty years, he has worked for Turley Wine Cellars, working his way up from harvest intern to Winemaker/Vineyard Manager.