If you are already a California pinotphile, you know what an excellent pinot noir tastes like—seductive, smooth, elegant, and all the other romantic adjectives attached to this noble varietal.
If you aren’t aware of the excellent California pinot noirs available today, you should also get to know what wines made from this grape decidedly are not. Pinot noirs do not taste like cabernet sauvignon, merlot, zinfandel, or syrah—the so-called “big red” wines of our vineyard-rich state. If you love these “big shoulder” California reds, you will enjoy recalibrating your taste buds for the subtleties and silkiness of pinot noir.
Early in the state’s wine history, California wine pioneers from Italy and middle-European countries naturally planted red grapes from their warm weather homelands in warm districts, such as the Sonoma and Napa valleys. From these efforts came plantings of zinfandel, carignane, and barbera, among others. These grapes are hearty, get good yields, are easy to grow and relatively easy to vinify, and they have robust tastes. For the most part, California wine lovers “grew up” with these “big reds,” and these wine expressions became a taste reference.
Generally speaking, when growers first planted pinot noir vines, they put them in the same warm areas as the other red grapes. Big red wines like nice warm weather; pinot noir does not. The climate for great pinot noir wines must be much cooler. There are many cooler zones in California, especially land that is near the ocean in what we call a maritime climate. Still, when the wine growers were just starting out, who knew? Also, making pinot noir is not at all like making, say, cabernet sauvignon. Great pinot noir doesn’t lend itself to large-scale winemaking. Let’s face it, pinot noir is difficult to grow, difficult to make, and even worrisome once it goes into the bottle—it’s hard to assess how the wine will turn out.
Therefore, early in the game, California pinot noirs garnered a dismal reputation while cabernets and all the other warm weather grapes were riding high.
Some visionaries, especially people such as ambassador J.D. Zellerbach at Hanzell, Dick Graff at Chalone, Josh Jensen at Calera, and Joe Rochioli, Francis Mahoney, David Graves, and Richard Ward at Saintsbury fell in love with the great pinot noirs of Burgundy—and they were determined, even obsessed, with making world-class pinot noir wines in California.
First, the pinot noir pioneers had to find the right places to plant the vines. Jensen (who became seriously interested in wine while he was at Oxford) worked at two top Burgundy wineries, where he learned a lot before coming to California, and he began a long search for the perfect pinot terroir—limestone soil and a cool climate. He found the spot in one of the most remote places in California, near the top of a barren, limestone mountain at 2,200 feet above sea level—Mt. Harlan, in San Benito County—and planted the first vines there in 1975. Jensen’s pinot noir journey was so interesting that the story became a book, The Heartbreak Grape, by Marq De Villiers. The author wrote, “Pinot noir is called the heartbreak grape because it is so stubborn, so particular, so elusive, and so damn difficult to get right…the greatest pinot noirs are…tantalizing, elusive, poetic, thrilling. No other red wine can seem so ripe and fragile, so decadent and clean, so irresistible.”
Today, great California pinot noirs are some of the most desirable wines on the market, all of them from the right growing areas. Generally, you’ll want to seek pinot noirs from: the Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley, parts of the Central Coast, Santa Rita Hills, Santa Lucia Highlands, Santa Cruz Mountains, Carneros District, Anderson Valley, parts of the Livermore Valley, San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande Valley, Edna Valley, and, surprise, Marin County.
The greatest pinot noirs are usually made in small amounts from special vineyards. Many of the top brands produce wines from various select vineyards—Williams Selyem, Calera, Patz & Hall, Siduri, and Rutz Cellars top that list. (The Nob Hill Gazette served Boisset Family Estates pinot noirs at the annual Christmas party—and the wines brightened the evening.) Let’s drop some super names by district. This way, you can look for excellent names and excellent vineyards.
Carneros—Domaine Carneros, Acacia, Etude, and Clos du Val
Central Coast—Calera Reed (Mt. Harlan), Ryan, Mills, Mt. Harlan Cuvee, Chalone
Mendocino—Paul Dolan
Russian River Valley—Davis Bynum, Patz & Hall Chenoworth, Wooden Head, Gary Farrell, Lynmar Quail Hill, Rutz Cellars, De Loach, Joseph Swan, Merry Edwards, Williams Selyem (19 different bottles), Martinelli “Zio Tony Ranch,” Siduri (17 bottles)
Santa Barbara—Byron Santa Barbara
Santa Cruz Mountains—David Bruce
Santa Maria—Bien Nacido, Sierra Madre, Au Bon Climat
Santa Rita Hills—Clos Pepe, Sea Smoke, Sanford
Sonoma—Hanzell
Sonoma Coast—La Crema, MacRostie, Hartford, Kanzler, Landmark, MacMurray
Santa Lucia Highlands—Kali Hart, Patz & Hall Pisoni, Morgan “Hat Trick”
Ed Schwartz began his career in wine promotion at New York’s “21″ Club. As his interest in wine grew, he and his wife moved west to be closer to the grapes.
