Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Pinot Noir
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Plum, dried strawberry and rose stem aromas. Full-bodied, layered and savory with fine tannins and a long and flavorful finish. Juicy and bright. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
Showing lighter in the glass, this bottling from 1988 vines offers dark mulberry fruit on the complex nose alongside turned earth, juniper and toasty cappuccino notes. The gamy elements are well integrated on the palate, where coffee bean, roasted plum and bay leaf extend into a caramelkissed finish.
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Wine & Spirits
Redolent of blood and cloves, brown spices and sanguine tinges, this wine is fascinating if a bit unformed. The flavors are concentrated and the spice runs deep, surrounding its core, so, if you don’t cellar this, consider decanting it an hour before pouring with a dish with melded flavors, like lamb tagine.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2019 Calera Ryan Vineyard Pinot Noir is nicely built and stylish on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with aromas and flavors of wild strawberries, ripe blueberries, savory spices, dried earthy, and accents of oak. Enjoy it with grilled lamb chops and a side of saffron rice. (Tasted: March 23, 2023, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
Well-proportioned, with a juicy core of black cherry and mulberry fruit flanked by judicious toast. Sleek acidity drives the finish, where red tea and spice accents fill in. Built for cellaring. Drink now through 2030.
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.