Winemaker Notes
Overlooking the Pacific Ocean and surrounding Rosemary Talley’s home, Rosemary’s Vineyard is the coolest site at Talley Vineyards, has distinctive chalky shale soils and produces Pinot Noir marked by refreshing acidity. It yeilds Talley Vineyards most ageworthy and highly regarded wines.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Pinot Noir Rosemary's Vineyard is more aromatic, with beautiful black raspberry fruits, notes of scorched earth, crushed flowers, and flinty minerality, medium to full body, beautiful balance, and an elegant, seamless style that carries stunning length on the finish. Rating: 96+
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A barrel sample, the 2018 Pinot Noir Rosemary's Vineyard has a pale to medium ruby color and bombastic scents of raspberry, strawberry, rhubarb and pomegranate preserves with accents of blood orange, potpourri, dried flowers, tree bark and amaro. Light to medium-bodied, the palate is bright, lively and intensely flavored with loads of floral nuance, a gentle frame and that classic, bright Talley freshness, finishing on a potpourri note. Range: (92-94)+
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.