Calera Central Coast Pinot Noir 2010

Limited availability.

Hot off the press: 93 points Wine Spectator Insider: "A classy art-of-the-blend cuvee that's very ripe but still complex, relying on rich dark berry, plum, crushed rock and cedar. So young and vibrant at this stage, yet also so deep and tight, that it's both tempting to drink now but looks like a great cellar choice as well. Drink now through 2021." Awarded 2011 Winery of the Year by Wine & Spirits Magazine (the fourth time in the last eight years after 2009, 2008, and 2006), Calera is sure on a roll. 2010 witnessed an unusually cool summer, resulting in a long, cool growing season, ideal for producing the style of fragrant, bright, expressive cool-climate Pinot that Calera is known for. Fruit for the Central Coast bottling is sourced from various sites throughout the Central Coast AVA, including the Laetitia Vineyard in San Luis Obispo, Chula Vina in Monterey, and Besson Vineyard in Santa Clara County (among others). The separate lots were fermented and aged without racking in 10% new French oak for eleven months, then blended and bottled unfiltered.

A wonderful, full gentle bouquet of red plum, berries, rose petal and mineral accents lively flavors of blackberry, raspberry and sassy sour cherry. This wine offers great depth, spice, a hint of sweet oak and beautiful texture with very fine-grained tannins and a soft, round, easy drinking mouthfeel that lingers on leaving you wanting another taste.



Calera was founded in 1975 by Josh Jensen, who worked two consecutive harvests in Burgundy — In 1970 at the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, and in 1971, at Domaine Dujac. In 1970 he also worked the harvest at Chateau-Grillet in the northern Rhone Valley.
After a two-year search for limestonederived soil in California, Jensen located and purchased a rugged, remote property near Hollister in the Gavilan Mountains of San Benito County, with a large limestone deposit. It is 90 miles south of San Francisco, 12 miles south of the town of Hollister, and 25 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean on a level with the city of Monterey. There, in 1975, at 2,200 feet above sea level, he planted the three original Pinot Noir vineyards, which he called Selleck, Reed and Jensen.