Winemaker Notes
The nose is redolent of pomegranate, hints of baking spice, fresh cherries. The texture is fine grained and silky with hints of the dense and fine stem tannin still lingering and which will no doubt resolve over time and meld into the wine giving it greater body and texture. In some past vintages of Lester, early on it would express hints of green, but there is none to be found here. While coming off as elegant and shy at first blush, the density and texture on the palate along with seamless acidity bely a wine that will pay dividends with some aging time. The palate echoes the nose with red fruits, cherries, pomegranate and those subtle hints of spice that are a telltale characteristic Pinots from the Corralitos region.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2018 Pinot Noir Lester Family Vineyard is fabulous. The best elements of the Big Basin style come together in a Pinot that has it all: soaring aromatics, deep fruit and plenty of backing structure. Some of the 2018 Pinots are quite giving today, but not the Lester. It needs at least a few years in bottle to fully come together. Dark, brooding and mysterious, the 2018 will have much to say when the time comes.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Mulberries, dried flowers, forest floor, spice, and herbes de Provence-like notes emerge from the 2018 Pinot Noir Lester Family Vineyard, a medium-bodied, charming, sweetly fruited beauty with ripe tannins and a great finish. It offers more fruit and opulence than the other releases here yet still has some classic Santa Cruz Mountain structure. It has a solid decade of prime drinking ahead of it.
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Wine Enthusiast
Slightly tart raspberry and red plum skin aromas are sprinkled in herbal forest floor scents, cracked pepper and pine needle on the nose of this energetic wine. Bay leaf leads the herbal palate, where more tangy plum and rounder melon rind flavors align.
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Wine & Spirits
Prudy Foxx farms this vineyard in the hills of Corralitos, a parcel planted in 1999 three miles from Monterey Bay. Bradley Brown encouraged the wine’s cool ripeness in his 2018, a pinot noir that takes time in the glass to show itself. At first earthy, dense and floral, its lively energy begins to take off, like a run along a forest trail, the ground soft with pine needles, the air lively with woodlands in bloom. Decant it for wild mushroom risotto.
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.”
A rugged and topographically diverse cool-climate appellation with a rich history, the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA stretches from Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco, to the northern border of Monterey County. Elevations range from 800 feet to upwards of 3,000 and microclimates vary substantially depending on which side of the mountains the vineyards lie; cool ocean winds and fog play an important role here. This can be a challenging region in which to grow grapes, but it is well worth the effort. Santa Cruz Mountains wines are noted for balanced acidity levels, often showing great aging potential. Wine has been made here since the 1800s, most notably from the legendary Ridge Vineyards, whose Monte Bello vineyard garners international admiration.
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are the stars of this region, while Merlot and Zinfandel also perform quite well. Organic and sustainable vineyard practices are becoming increasingly common.