Talley Arroyo Grande Valley Estate Pinot Noir 2018
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
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Winemaker Notes
The signature red wine of Talley Vineyards, the Estate Pinot Noir has been bottled since the inaugural 1986 vintage and represents a pure expression of the Arroyo Grande Valley appellation. Aromas of cherry, pomegranate, sage, and dusty roots with flavors of Raspberry rhubarb, cranberry, orange peel, and nutmeg on the palate.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
There's an expert level of restraint on the nose of this bottling, with aromas of rose hips, fennel, damp soil and strawberry. There's a great herbal display on the palate, with marjoram and tarragon accents, as well as crisp and deliciously tart flavors of plum skin and red currant.
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Jeb Dunnuck
From some great sites, the 2018 Pinot Noir Estate is all varietal, aged 14 months in 30% new French oak and bottled without filtration. More raspberries, toasted spice, forest, and floral notes emerge from the glass. It's medium-bodied, elegant, and lively on the palate, with good depth and moderate length.
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Wine & Spirits
Cool and simple, this pinot has an earthy savor grounding sweet cinnamon spice and dark-cherry flavors. the texture is dense and supple, with firm tannins for flank steak.
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Jeb
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James
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Robert
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Wilfred
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Talley Vineyards is a family owned and operated winery that specializes in estate grown Chardonnay and Pinot Noir ideally suited for the climate and soils of the Arroyo Grande and Edna Valleys. The Talley’s farming history in the area dates to 1948 when Oliver Talley began growing vegetables in the Arroyo Grande Valley. Guided by this legacy and a commitment to long term sustainability, Talley Vineyards focuses on attention to detail in all aspects of farming and winemaking operations. The goal is to produce distinctive wines of consistently high quality that best express the unique character of each of the Talley family’s six vineyard sites in the two valleys.
Talley Vineyards is located in the Arroyo Grande Valley, seven miles east of the Pacific Ocean in San Luis Obispo County on California's South Central Coast. We are approximately halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles and less than 10 minutes from Highway 101 in Arroyo Grande.
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.”
One of the coolest growing areas in California, the Arroyo Grande Valley runs from the southwest to the northeast, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean and is part of the Central Coast AVA. Situated so that cold Pacific Ocean air and fog is allowed to filter into the valley, Arroyo Grande also has an incredibly long growing season. Bud break occurs in February in most years with flowering in May and harvest in late September; the area is classified as cool Mediterranean.
These weather factors combined with the soil types—continental and marine rocks, greywacke, limestone, shale and volcanic—create wines with great concentration and fresh acidity. The cooler end of the valley is perfect for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and is a good producer of sparkling wines. The warmer, more inland part of the valley is home to some of California’s oldest Zinfandel vines.