Winemaker Notes
This wine is excellent with oily fish, pasta, soup and cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
My first encounter with a Pinot Noir from the Grey range (even if it has been produced since 2011) is the 2015 Grey Pinot Noir, which is produced with fruit from Leyda. Some 15% of the clusters fermented whole in open vats. It has a ripe nose without excess, with notes of sour cherries and some flowers. Quite aromatic. The palate is gentle but with power. This is the first time the Pinot Noir is not filtered, and that's why it was aged for a little longer.
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.”
An officially recognized sub-zone in the southern part of the San Antonio Valley, the Leyda Valley was the original settlement of the wine pioneers who came to the area in the 1990s. They were in search of cooler and wetter growing conditions—as compared to more eastern, drier and often warmer locations.
Planting, which began only in the late 1990s, focused on Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot noir and some limited spots for Syrah. The area continues to receive well-earned accolades for wines of these varieties.