Winemaker Notes
#73 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Cellar Selections of 2019
Another deftly handled wine from Molly Bohlman, where the rhubarb driven profile is joined by easy fall spice, black cherry, sassafras and light stemmy character that together make a great food friendly wine that leans toward the pork tenderloin side of the menu. This can handle a nice herb and spice crust on the meat.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Plush aromas of strawberry and cherry meet with subtle accents of clove, gingerbread, cinnamon and flowers on the nose of this bottling from Jespersen Ranch. A strawberry flavor dominates the palate, with touches of pepper and tobacco leaf, all framed by full tannins that hold firm into the finish. Drink through 2032.
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.”
California’s coolest wine growing area, Edna Valley excels in the production of high quality Central Coast wines like Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Rhône Blends and aromatic white wines. It has a cool Mediterranean climate and an incredibly long growing season, giving late-ripening varieties plenty of opportunity to develop great phenolic complexity.
Its northwest to southeast orientation creates a direct path for cool Pacific air and fog to penetrate the valley from the Los Osos and Morro Bay area inwards. Low hillsides of both calcareous and volcanic soils are home to much of the vineyard acreage of the Edna Valley.