Winemaker Notes
This beautiful 2008 de Villiers Pinot possesses a dark, graceful, soulful hue with a deeply intense and faintly smoky bouquet of boysenberry and black cherry. Concentrated by the scant yield of less than half a ton per acre, the flavors are deep and vibrant with blackberry, blueberry, red currant, soy and mineral accentuated by an amazingly elegant structure and a grippy, albeit succulent and lingering finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Pinot Noir de Villiers Vineyard flows from the glass with layers of dark cherries, menthol, licorice and tobacco. It is a wonderfully fleshy, expressive Pinot to drink now and over the next decade. Despite the richness of the fruit, there is more than enough structure for this to drink well for quite some time. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2020.
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.