Winemaker Notes
The 2022 Luli Pinot Noir embodies the combination of elegance and richness. This wine possesses a deep ruby hue and a mélange of exuberant aromas. Notes of Bing cherry and wild raspberry mingle with hints of cedar spice and delicate violets creating an enticing bouquet. The palate displays the broad textual notes common from these rugged hillsides of the Santa Lucia Highlands. Decomposed granite soils stressed the vines and 2022 was a particularly low yielding year. Vibrant flavors of juicy plum dance alongside muddled raspberries and layered tannins. This Pinot Noir wonderfully captures the cool, foggy weather of the Santa Lucia Highlands.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2022 Pinot Noir (Santa Lucia Highlands) is textbook SLH—everything you want from an easygoing, early-drinking red. Sweet raspberry, lavender and sour cherry open in the glass, giving way to a generous mouthfeel that coats every corner of the palate in juicy red fruit. Considering the growing season, a touch of heat on the finish is eminently forgivable.
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.