2017 Pinot Noir Jensen Vineyard

I was really impressed with these new releases from Calera. The 2017s Pinots in particular are of note. Whereas many regions in California struggled with Labor Day heat spikes that coincided with harvest, Calera had the advantage of being a little bit later in their growing season, largely the result of a cold and very wet start to the year. As always, winemaker Mike Waller does the estate Pinots with 100% whole clusters, with the exception of the de Villiers which these days sees more like 50-60% stems. All the Pinots spent 18 months in barrel. Other highlights include the Central Coast Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. A decision to release those wines a later than in the past has really paid off. In short, its pretty hard to go wrong here.