Winemaker
Sashi Moorman
- Discipline
- Winemaker
- Based in
- Los Olivos, California, United States
i. Biography
The Making
Wine practice built across kitchen, cellar, and vineyard carries a different sense of timing. In Sashi Moorman’s case, Vassar College came before restaurant work as a cook in Washington, D.C. And New York, where repetition, heat, texture, and restraint were daily materials. That background matters in the cellar: decisions still depend on sequence, touch, and knowing when not to add more. Cellar training put that practical discipline onto a longer clock. As a winemaking trainee working under winemaker Adam Tolmach at The Ojai Vineyard in Ojai, California, Moorman moved from service-time decisions to fermentation and élevage, where choices register over months. The later role of winemaker at Stolpman Vineyards in Santa Barbara kept the work tied to place as much as process. Vigneron work depends on continuity between farming, making, and stewardship. Moorman’s current roles—founder of Provignage (since 2009), founder of Sandhi (since 2011), founder of Domaine de La Côte (since 2013), and vineyard stewardship and wine production lead of Evening Land Vineyards (since 2014)—keep those parts connected rather than treated as separate trades. The common thread is wine handled from ground to bottle with attention to agricultural source, cellar choices, and the account a finished wine gives of its site.
The Current Chapter
Pinot Noir work at Domaine de La Côte is organized around site and parcel distinction. Moorman is managing partner at Domaine de La Côte and managing partner at Sandhi Wines; the estate is a Pinot-focused winery he founded, centered on the variety in the Sta. Rita Hills of Santa Barbara, with Bloom’s Field among its single-vineyard wines. The craft emphasis is not scale or display, but close handling so nuance, texture, and origin remain legible. The region’s wine can carry energy and texture without excess ornamentation. At Sandhi, Moorman is founder, and the project belongs to the same discipline: cellar work that frames vineyard material rather than covering it. At Provignage, founded in 2009, the through-line is the old world vigneron idea—farming, making, and telling the story as connected acts rather than separate departments. The aim is coherence from vine to glass. Syrah and Rhône-inspired wines at Piedrasassi in Lompoc, California, give another view of the same cellar logic. Moorman is co-manager and winemaker there, where the work excels with bold, flavorful Syrah and Rhône-inspired wines. The method is described as minimal intervention: whole-bunch ferments, 100% whole-cluster fermentation for spice and stemmy lift, and aging in mostly neutral French oak to keep attention on purity and texture. Stems, oak, and extraction are not decorative choices; they set aroma, structure, and finish while keeping the wine’s center of gravity in fruit and vineyard. Influence is not the same as copying. Moorman has put the Burgundian connection plainly: "Some people think Raj and I are trying to do a facsimile of Burgundy. This isn’t true." The statement sets the frame for work that can acknowledge old world models while remaining tied to local places, coastal light, and nearby vineyards. The useful measure is not resemblance, but whether the wine articulates precision, texture, and origin.
Signature
Single-vineyard and named bottlings mark how site work is made visible in the glass. Bloom's Field, La Côte, and Memorius are signature bottlings in Moorman’s body of work, carrying the same preference for vineyard expression, restraint, and cumulative detail. Their importance is practical: each name points back to the decisions in farming, fermentation, élevage, and selection that determine how place is presented without being overwritten.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Sashi
What role does Sashi Moorman hold?
Sashi Moorman is managing partner.
Where did Sashi Moorman train or study?
Sashi Moorman trained at Vassar College.
What recognition has Sashi Moorman received?
Vinepair’s 50 Best Wines (2025).
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