Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Pinot Noir De Villiers Vineyard, from vines planted in 1997, bursts from the glass with expressive, juicy fruit. Dark red berries, flowers, mint, spices and an orange rind follow, leading to a generous, inviting finish. The De Villiers is the only vineyard-designate Pinot made from fully de-stemmed fruit. It is a towering wine of incomparable class and elegance. Simply put, this is a stunning showing from Calera. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2024. 96+
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Wine & Spirits
Josh Jensen’s remote mountain estate is surrounded by dry chaparral and it’s tempting to read its imprint in this wine’s exotic, garrigue-like aromas of lavender, pine and dried sage. The Jensen block, planted in 1975, has a wider range of exposures than Calera’s two other original blocks, Selleck and Reed. At first this wine’s fruit seems almost brambly, perhaps due to the concentrated ripeness of the south-facing compo- nents, but it’s girded by distinctly stern tannins; the vineyard’s high-elevation, its limestone soils and, likely, Jensen’s commitment to whole-cluster fermentation all contribute to that structural integrity. With a day of air, the wine relaxes, its beguiling fragrance and satiny fruit leaning back on cool minerality.
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.