John Benedetti is the owner-winemaker at Sante Arcangeli Winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. After brewing beer since the age of 19, John Benedetti moved into winemaking in 2008 and founded Sante Arcangeli Family Wines, with a focus on Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Corralitos region. Then, in 2010 he co-founded Sante Adairius Rustic Ales with a focus on Belgian-inspired beers aged in his used Chardonnay and Pinot Noir barrels. Not long after the brewery opened, he left to focus full-time on winemaking, opening his own production facility in nearby Aromas. There, he now produces 2,500 cases annually for the Sante Arcangeli label, while also winemaking for several smaller client labels. Media Inquiries: jb@santewinery.com | https://www.santewinery.com/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
Seventeen years ago, I walked away from a successful web development business to pursue winemaking—a passion that just made sense. I bootstrapped the winery from the ground up, doing all the production myself with help from a part-time assistant, and ran the tasting room on weekends with my infant son in tow. My approach is hands-on and non-dogmatic, shaped by a background in brewing and a century-old family bakery. The goal was clear: raise the quality bar for the Santa Cruz Mountains appellation and reflect its true potential.
The winery is rooted in unconventionality—from the culture we’ve built to the way I make wine. No formulas, just responsive, thoughtful winemaking that respects the vintage and the land. Our wines are honest, ingredient-labeled, and born of a deep commitment to transparency and terroir. A short film about our journey, including the personal loss of my wife and the path forward with my son, is available at santewinery.com/about.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained.
If my winery weren’t constrained by the financial aspects of running the business, I wouldn’t change much. I’d stay in the 2500 case realm, and would keep most of the vineyards I currently work with, though adding in some Anderson Valley and Sonoma Coast vineyards would be fun. What I would really focus on is one thing: paying my staff more. I have the most amazing staff anyone could ever ask for, and I would love to make their lives even better by paying them a salary that removed any financial concern from their lives. Oh, and I’d buy more concrete eggs for the Chardonnay. That’s about it. I wouldn’t pay myself more, I live simply and have enough to get by on.
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
Split Rail Vineyard Pinot Noir is the flagship wine for the winery. In the summer of 2010, I stumbled across Split Rail Vineyard, an older vineyard on a hilltop high above Corralitos that had once been part of the David Bruce estate. The vineyard had fallen into disrepair, but was being resurrected by new owners, and I got involved as the sole producer on a hunch that the unique site, ringed by Redwoods and Madrones at 1700’ elevation only 4 miles from the ocean, would produce interesting wine. Shortly after, a bit of research uncovered the vineyard’s direct lineage as one of the sole remaining descendants of the field selection brought from the Latour property by Paul Masson in the 1890s. Wines from Split Rail Vineyard have since garnered international praise year after year for their nuanced, old-world personality. Read my review of the 2022 Split Rail Pinot Noir.
Bonus Question: What’s the One Thing people would be surprised to learn about you?
Many people don’t know that I’ve done a lot of different kinds of things in my past lives… while at UCSB I played music semi-professionally, and landed in world champion surfer Tom Curren’s band on the first ever Warped Tour in 1996. I accidentally passed up an opportunity at that time to audition for my classmate Jack Johnson’s new band. Whoops. I still play music for fun, producing “one man band” recordings where I play every instrument (drums, guitars, bass, keyboards and vocals). I also spent a couple of years running a publishing company/eZine for renowned author Allan Weisbecker, during which time I often “ghost wrote” his newsletters whenever he was ill or otherwise messed up from the various drugs he did. Authors… an odd lot sometimes…