Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This appellation blend is more than the sum of its parts. Fresh aromas of candied raspberry, sumac, cinnamon and mint lead into a explosive palate of freshly smashed berry, pomegranate and dewy sage. Brisk acidity keeps it lively through the finish.
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Wine & Spirits
Cool and perfumed, this wine has less structure than the other Talley wines reviewed here but the region’s flavors remain, with brushy strawberry aromas, the whiff of coastal, hillside herbs tinged with caramel barrel notes; the oak component gives the wine its contour of plush elegance. Decant it for salmon
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Jeb Dunnuck
Outstanding notes of framboise, camphor, spice, and even a hint of new leather emerge from the 2019 Pinot Noir Estate, a fresh, focused, pretty Pinot Noir with impressive fruit.
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.