Winemaker Notes
The 2016 Highlands Bench Pinot Noir has a lovely wild strawberry varietal character with a touch of sage and dried orange rind. The full palate is abound with fruit. Flinty and firm on the finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of black cherry, vanilla, cola and loamy minerality lead into a mouthcoating palate of boysenberry, milk chocolate and oaky coconut flavors. This is a no-holds-barred Pinot Noir, with a power that would be suitable for grilled rib eye.
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Wine & Spirits
J. Lohr’s vineyards are just west of Gonzales, roughly the midway point of the Santa Lucia Highlands Bench. This wine has plenty of ripe strawberry and plum flavors but avoids the mass and weight of many wines from the area. Instead there’s grip and contour, a whiff of umami and smoke, with a succulence offset by brisk acids.
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Wine Spectator
Robust red currant, dried raspberry and plum tart flavors are backed by fresh acidity and firm tannins. Asian spice accents show on the creamy finish. Drink now through 2024.
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.