Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From one of the cooler terroirs on the estate, the 2012 Pinot Noir Ryan Vineyard offers full-bodied richness and depth to go with ample sweet black cherries, cassis, sassafras, crushed flowers and toasted spice. A decidedly hedonistic, full throttled example of this cuvee, this superb Pinot Noir firms up nicely on the finish and has a full, layered mid-palate. Drink it now, or cellar it for a decade.
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Wine Spectator
Tightly wound, with a firm mix of snappy dark berry, gravel, cedar and limestone, featuring fine-grained tannins that keep the flavors on the palate, giving them traction and persistence. Needs time. Best from 2016 through 2026.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
When "us" guys in the business talk about Pinot Noir purity, all we need to do is to point to the excellent 2012 Calera Ryan. This wine exhibits uncommon delicate notes that most others miss. Light to medium garnet color; very aromatic notes that stays with pure red fruits and dried spiced notes, excellent depth, yet understated and refined; dry, fine acidity, well balanced; bright red flavors, some slate and mineral, too are long and persistent; medium to lingering finish. Starting to drink now. (Tasted: November 20, 2015, San Francisco, CA)
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.