Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I loved the fruit in the 2013 Pinot Noir Coastview Vineyard and it’s one of the more textured, layered wines in the lineup. Crushed rocks, rose petals, violets, leather and assorted, perfumed Pinot Noir fruit all emerge from this medium-bodied, balanced, juicy and straight up delicious wine. It shows the leaner, fresher style of the estate, yet has texture. Fermented with 30% whole clusters, give it a year or so and drink bottles through 2023.
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Wine Enthusiast
Made with only 30% whole-cluster, this bottling by Bradley Brown allows lusher red-cherry fruit to show on the nose, alongside slate, mint and sandalwood notes. Those same red-cherry elements meet with cranberry on the palate, growing more complex as layers of graphite, bay leaf, pine needle and turned forest floor arise.
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.”
At elevations reaching well over 2,000 feet, the Mt. Harlan AVA in the Gabilan Range is an anomaly among its surrounding Central Coast appellations. Recognizing the splendor of the area and its ideal limestone-rich soils, Josh Jensen chose Mt. Harlan as the home of his Calera Wine Company in the 1970s. Awarded his own AVA in 1990, Calera is the only commercial winery in the appellation.