Calera Mt. Harlan Mills Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018
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Wong
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Winemaker Notes
Planted in 1984, at an elevation of 2,200 feet, Mills Vineyard consistently yields an effortlessly complex wine that strikes a lovely balance between elegance and energy. Offering the classic red berry and cherry flavors that Mills is known for, along with deeper layers of lush black fruit, thyme and white pepper, there is a graceful suppleness to this wine that carries it to a sleek, focused finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Calera Mills Vineyard Pinot Noir is rich, stylish, and long-lasting. TASTING NOTES: This wine excels with fragrant aromas and tantalizing flavors of ripe berries, earth, sandalwood, and oak accents. Enjoy it with rosemary and garlic-infused lamb kebabs. (Tasted: December 18, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine & Spirits
Small yields and moderate to warm weather result in a Mills that’s generous in 2018, with a richness that’s delicious and satisfying. Mike Waller has managed to retain a wild savor here that gives the wine completeness and intricacy, a complex spice of dust and herb oils, sundried tomato and an earthy, rooty depth, all woven seamlessly around the fruit. It should age beautifully.
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Wine Enthusiast
Roasted cherry and juniper aromas give a rugged mountain angle to this bottling, but there's also splashes of fresh fruit. Gritty tannins could use a touch more time, but they wrap firmly around flavors of elderberry, blackberry, chaparral herb and oak. Drink 2023–2038.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Enticing, with expressive blood orange, red tea and mulled raspberry aromas and flavors racing through. Features light incense and savory accents on the finish, which shows nice tension and length.
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In 1975, legendary vintner and American wine pioneer Josh Jensen founded Calera (Spanish for “lime kiln”) high in the remote Gavilan Mountains of California’s windswept Central Coast. There, in Mt. Harlan’s low-yielding, limestone-rich soils and cool, arid climate, he began planting what would ultimately become six small estate vineyards. Today, these vineyards are recognized as some of the New World’s most revered Pinot Noir sites.
Calera is a vision, and Calera’s wines truly express the sense of place. Rather than follow the recommended path, Josh Jensen became a pioneer in American Pinot Noir. Taking his cue from the great domaines of Burgundy, which have grown grapes in limestone soil for centuries, he set out in search of the perfect spot in California to create wines unique to the world but in the style of the greatest wines of France. Site selection was vital as he ventured off the grid to plant on the site of an old limekiln in the Gavilan Mountains of California's Central Coast.
Under the stewardship of Winemaker Mike Waller, each vineyard is renowned for producing singular wines of uncommon purity, elegance and aging potential. In addition to its beloved single-vineyard wines, Calera partners with some of the top vineyards on California’s majestic Central Coast to make Calera’s beautiful Central Coast wines, including a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
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.