It’s easy to get distracted by the diversity of grape varieties and wine styles while tasting wines and interviewing winemakers in California’s Santa Barbara County, but there’s no getting around the fact that pinot noir is this ocean-adjacent region’s biggest star.

Chinese producers are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with winemaking in the country, using native grapes and international varieties to craft homespun offerings that cater to an audience beyond borders.

In his 20-plus years of winemaking spanning Vermont, Napa, New Zealand and now Santa Barbara, winemaker Matt Dees has established a track record of proving people wrong and defying odds.

Even though three-quarters of the bottles made in New Zealand are sauvignon blanc, the real quality wine story lies elsewhere, with the most compelling offerings made from chardonnay and pinot noir. And producers are much more interested in fine-tuning their viticulture rather than focusing on stylizing wines.

The newest Brunello di Montalcino Riserva feels like a vintage straight out of a James Bond movie, where the secret agent asks for a bottle of the newest famous Italian red with great confidence – “The 2019 Riserva Brunello, please” – instead of his usual Bollinger Champagne.