Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Slightly deeper and richer, yet also less expressive aromatically, the 2011 Pinot Noir Ryan Vineyard offers a darker, earthier profile, with black cherry, underbrush, pepper and ground herbs giving way to hints of rose petal and spice with air. Medium to full-bodied, it has impressive richness in the vintage, as well as beautiful mid-palate density and a seamless texture. Overall, it’s a structured effort that should be given another handful of years in the cellar, and consumed over the following decade.
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Wine Enthusiast
Difficult to appreciate now, this Pinot is bone dry, brittle in tannins and acidic. It has quietly complex rosehip tea, sour cherry candy and cola flavors, with a tasteful appliqué of oak. Hold until 2019 and see what it's doing.
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.