Winemaker Notes
Nestled into the rolling hills of the northwest corner of Edna Valley, Jespersen Ranch lies three miles from the Pacific Ocean and derives much of its personality from the coast. The growing season in Edna Valley is long and cool with early morning fog and mid-afternoon ocean breezes. The wines from Jespersen combine classic regional characteristics of delicate fruit and white pepper with hints of earth and consistently strong acid, characteristics unique to this property.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Extremely fresh aromas of Bing cherry sorbet, red currant syrup, red flowers and underlying licorice make for an intensely fruity and delicious nose. The palate tightens up around dried cherry and hibiscus flavors, with luxurious amounts of mace, sumac and chai spice leading into a lingering finish of lavender and mint.
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.