Winemaker Notes
Named after its once pedestrian purpose, the vineyard was named "Calesa" meaning stagecoach in Spanish. Long ago this site, featuring expansive views of the Pacific, served as a resting stop for horse drawn carriages. Located in the newly minted Petaluma Gap AVA, Calesa vineyard sits in the "wind gap" or coastal mountain opening where direct coastal wind and cooler temperatures provide optimal growing conditions for Pinot Noir. The salty maritime wind and afternoon fog whisk in a chill that results in smaller grapes, thicker skins and a longer hang time. These factors nurture more concentrated flavor compounds.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Exciting scents of sour cherries, mulled plums and baking spices fill the aroma of this complex and layered wine. Intricate nuances of cinnamon, nutmeg and mint emerge on the palate, complementing the broad fruit flavors. A full body is braced by mild acidity and soft tannins.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Pinot Noir Calesa Vineyard boasts quite a bit more nuance and displays a reflective ruby red color. The nose opens to notes of crushed red raspberries, floral rosy perfume, fresh pine, and baking spice. Medium-bodied, it fills the palate with a ripe feel and a snappy lift of salinity on the finish.
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.”
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.