2013 Calera, Pinot Noir, Jensen Vineyard, Mt. Harlan.
The gorgeous Jensen Vineyard by Josh Jensen is one of California’s best wines and his Calera Wine Co. offers an amazing lineup across the board, but especially thrilling are his hillside Mt. Harlan Pinots, which is certainly a Grand Cru class site and a singularly unique terroir. Josh Jensen, Oxford grad and California winemaking legend, was clearly influenced by his time at Domaine Dujac and Burgundy itself and it’s limestone based soils, which he found at Mt. Harlan in the hills not far from Hollister in San Benito County, a place more known for western boots, sprawling ranches, farms, Coors long necks and chewing tobacco than Musigny or Clos de la Roche! While inland, Mt. Harlan still feels the cooling influence of the Pacific and the nights get cold allowing these vines time to recover from the days warm and generate structural acidity making for wines that have fantastic aging potential, Jensen also crafts his wines to develop over time with lots of stems, whole cluster and deft use of wood as well as extremely gentle handling. The 2013 Calera Jensen, his top Cru along with Selleck, is glorious from start to finish with a seductive inner perfume and delicate spiciness with a medium/full palate of divine texture and a long lasting finish that is mind-blowingly sublime and remarkable, lingering on and on for many minutes. This 2013 is lively and vinous with lively intensity and deep layers with many facets of flavors unfolding, the color is dark garnet and ruby, as usually the case with Calera Mt. Harlan Pinots, while the bouquet subtlety lifts from the glass with English rose, liquid violets, racy spices and mineral tones that easily transitions to the mouth along with black cherry, dusty plum, earthy red berries and faint leafy notes as well as stony loam, sweet and silky tannins with a nice cut of elegant acidity that lifts and gives a sense of dreamy lightness. This wine is both regal and authentic with an athletic vitality, but endlessly graceful, it doesn’t get much better than this, drink over the next 10 to 15 years, WOW!
($99 Est.) 96+ Points, grapelive
