Brand story
Jonata El Desafío de Jonata
El Desafío — “the challenge” — was named for exactly what it is. When Jonata released its debut vintage in 2004, planting Cabernet Sauvignon in the pure sand of Ballard Canyon, in a corner of Santa Barbara County known for Rhône and Burgundian varieties, was an act of open defiance. Two decades on, it is the estate's most serious statement: a Cabernet that answers the question the planting posed.
The current release is 98% Cabernet Sauvignon with 2% Merlot — the highest proportion of Cabernet in the wine's history — from the estate's certified organic vines, aged 20 months in 70% new French oak. Matt Dees calls it inky and monumental, and the wine earns both words: cassis, bay leaf, rosemary, incense, ripe mulberry and new leather, with mint and dark chocolate, then a palate of concentrated black fruit carried on ultra-fine tannins over scorched earth and dried herbs. Critics describe it as muscular and chiselled yet undeniably fine, with a drinking window stretching decades ahead. Sand, elevation and forty-degree diurnal swings, translated into Cabernet on its own terms.
