2022 Pinot Noir Escolle Vineyard

Scott Caraccioli oversees his family’s 124-acre estate vineyard, Escolle, selling fruit to several large and small outfits. Caraccioli Cellars is the house label, focused on Old-World-style wines with an emphasis on the estate sparkling program, a function of the influence of the late Michel Salgues (former Head Winemaker for Roederer Estate in Anderson Valley). Salgues developed the property with the Caraccioli family beginning in 2006. His legacy lives on in the quality of these wines. The Brut Cuvée is one of the absolute finest sparkling wines being produced in California and the United States, for that matter. The Brut Rosé and Blanc de Noirs are solid but will likely improve as the dosage gets dialed in. The other offerings in the range are of character and impressive. I’m particularly charmed by the Passetoutgrain, a Burgundy-style blend of estate Gamay and Pinot Noir that is distinctive within the California canon. Scott Caraccioli presented a mix of bottlings from 2018 (current release for the sparkling program), 2022 (Estate Pinot and Syrah) and 2023 (Gamay and Passetoutgrain), all of which are seriously good. This high-quality estate is on an upward trajectory.