Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Complant Soberanes Vineyard Pinot Noir is fresh and persistent. TASTING NOTES: Pair its alluring aromas and flavors of tart red fruits and brisk minerality with grilled, skin-on wild salmon fillets. (Tasted: December 3, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine & Spirits
Daniel Baron, whose career has included stints at Dominus, Silver Oak and Twomey, established Complant with his son, Sam. Their first release includes this pinot noir from eight rows of Pisoni clone fruit at Soberanes, spontaneously fermented, aged in neutral French oak barrels and bottled unfiltered. It channels the sunshine and coastal warmth of the Santa Lucia Highlands into a ripe and heady funkadelic energy, then settles into a silkier mode, with savory herbal notes, as it integrates with air. It’s a new project worth following.
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.”
Perhaps the most highly regarded appellation within Monterey County, Santa Lucia Highlands AVA benefits from a combination of warm morning sunshine and brisk afternoon breezes, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and fully. The result is concentrated, flavorful wines that retain their natural acidity. Wineries here do not shy away from innovation, and place a high priority on sustainable viticultural practices.
The climatic conditions here are perfectly suited to the production of ripe, rich Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. These Burgundian varieties dominate an overwhelming percentage of plantings, though growers have also found success with Syrah, Riesling and Pinot Gris.