Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Pinot Noir Garys' Vineyard is another ruby/purple-tinged beauty. This cuvee is 100% Pisoni clone and was aged 11 months in 50% new French oak before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. It offers more black cherry, red currants, earth and mushroom characteristics as well as a full-bodied, ripe, opulent style on the palate. With lots of fruit, moderate acidity, and a big finish, it's another sexy wine from this estate.
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Wine Spectator
Plump and Juicy, with tiers of lively plum, blackberry, black cherry and licorice. Perfectly charming and ready to enjoy, this is hard to put down. Drink through 2024.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Perhaps the most highly regarded appellation within Monterey County, Santa Lucia Highlands AVA benefits from a combination of warm morning sunshine and brisk afternoon breezes, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and fully. The result is concentrated, flavorful wines that retain their natural acidity. Wineries here do not shy away from innovation, and place a high priority on sustainable viticultural practices.
The climatic conditions here are perfectly suited to the production of ripe, rich Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. These Burgundian varieties dominate an overwhelming percentage of plantings, though growers have also found success with Syrah, Riesling and Pinot Gris.