With pinot noir on the lips, literally, of most wine lovers, prices for this most difficult-to-make wine have skyrocketed.

For decades, this light red wine -- perhaps the complete opposite of today’s cabernet sauvignon -- was known to be the offspring of petulant grapes that didn’t take kindly to being grown in warm areas. In the last 20 years of so, most warm-climate pinot noir plantings have been removed or converted to grapes that like warmth.

And even though growing pinot noir in colder regions was more likely to produce a good wine, the very attempt was not only risky, but often not financially rewarding.

The best way to make a great wine from this grape is with moderate tonnage per acre, and this meant that small crops had to be encouraged. This meant less wine per acre, and thus the wines would have to cost more.

And until the movie “Sideways” came out, getting a higher price for many wines was seen as rather dicey.

Now that consumers have discovered the greatness of pinot, prices for the best have risen to nearly $100 a bottle, and literally dozens of California and Oregon producers now routinely get $50 for just “very good” versions.

The number of regions that can be coaxed to deliver a great pinot noir are few and often within sight of water -- thus many are attractive as home sites.

Among the better regions for pinot is one in California’s Santa Barbara County that has less public recognition than it ought to, though many are now getting the idea that Santa Barbara in general is a great place to grow this variety.

Santa Rita Hills is the location, and it is west of Buellton in a foggy area that is quite cold and windy. Growing pinot noir is tricky in many colder regions, and this one is especially so because the Pacific Ocean crowds these vineyards on two sides.

Because of the way the coastline careens, there is ocean on the south and the west. Then, odder still is the fact that the cold winds that retard growth and grape development race east. Most California river valleys have north- or south-racing winds. Continued...