In the Santa Rita hills, 230 acres, 59 micro-blocks, numerous clones and rootstocks: sounds labyrinthine but one cool and collected winemaker has it all under control.

Foley Estates in the Santa Rita hills

Foley Estates Vineyard and Winery, in California, takes Burgundy as its model in several crucial ways. The focus is on pinot noir and chardonnay, the great wine grapes of the Burgundy region. (Foley grows a small amount of syrah, which is an important grape in France’s northern Rhone valley.)

Foley is located in the cool, breezy, foggy Santa Rita Hills of Santa Barbara. The 230 acres under cultivation at the estate are subdivided into 59 micro-blocks of various sizes, according to soil composition, elevation, specific climate conditions and topography. These plots are planted with what the winemaker and vineyard manager judge to be the most suitable rootstocks and clonal selections, and then farmed and harvested individually, with the grapes from each block vinified separately. It is a rigorous and painstaking approach.

This too has an approximate parallel in Burgundy, where grape growing and much of the wine production prior to blending are spread among many small growers. The 125 acres of Burgundy’s Clos de Vougeot, for example, are farmed by 80 different growers. A large single vineyard, or monopole, while common in other parts of France, is rare in Burgundy.

I recently met with Alan Phillips, the general manager and winemaker at Foley, while he was visiting New York, to taste his wines and discuss his unusual techniques. While every stage of the winemaking process from the field to the bottle is important, blending the clonal selections is at the heart of Mr. Phillip’s operation.

For consumers who prefer the expression of a single clone, Foley currently offers (or will soon offer) several interesting 2005 vintages. Clone 76 chardonnay was rich, with a creamy feel and a flinty bouquet along with strong fruit and light oak notes. It sells for $35, and production was 179 cases.

Clone 96—the nomenclature of clones is technical, basically plant nursery terms—also displayed mineral qualities as well as a layered fruit profile suggestive of pear and apricot and delicate oak. It also sells for $35, and 181 cases were produced.

Foley’s 2005 Rancho Santa Rosa chardonnay is a bend of four chardonnay clones from 16 blocks, vinified separately, then blended. How, I wondered, does a winemaker decide on quantities and proportions with such a selection of components before him? That is where the art of winemaking takes over from the science. Mr. Phillips experiments. With a small team of associates he tastes various blends for about two hours a day—the palate can’t handle more—for as many weeks as it takes. Eventually it is a group decision, when everyone feels the numerous individual qualities they seek are finally there in the right balance.

The Foley 2005 Rancho Santa Rosa chardonnay was a delicious wine, and for my taste at least, more complex and interesting than the single clones. Lively and fruit forward, with a seductive fragrance of green apple and grapefruit, stony notes and the acidity you want in a complex chardonnay. It sells for $30.

I tasted four different single clone pinot noir wines from the 2005 vintage, and though each was clearly a pinot noir, the range of characteristics was notable. The Pommard clone ($45) was soft, aromatic and delicate. Clone 2A ($45) had a beautiful crimson color and ripe berry quality, with a lovely unctuous quality. Clone 115 ($45) was earthy, with forest floor and mushroom qualities, recognizable as Burgundian characteristics. Dijon Clone 67 ($45) was big, dark and rich, with distinctive tannins. I can imagine carefully fine tuning each of these wines to a specific main course at a meal.

But, as with the chardonnay, it was the blended wine—Foley 2005 Rancho Santa Rosa pinot noir—that for me was most interesting and memorable. The scents and the tastes are integrated, seamlessly complex, nuanced, sensual and satisfying. It is a serious pinot noir, and well worth the $40 price.

The Santa Rosa Mountains shape the most significant east/west corridor on the Pacific Ocean between Alaska to Chile, and the ocean breezes and maritime fog give the Santa Rita Hills appellation an ultra-cool growing climate. It can be an unforgiving climate for a grape grower. But when planted with exactly the right clones of vines that do well in such conditions, it yields grapes with intense flavor, although in small quantities. In the hands of a skilled winemaker like Mr. Phillips that results in superb wines.