2017 Caraccioli Cellars, Pinot Noir, Hilltop Cuvee, Escolle Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands -photo grapelive

2017 Caraccioli Cellars, Pinot Noir, Hilltop Cuvee, Escolle Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands.
The beautifully crafted Hilltop Cuvee Pinot, an upcoming release from Scott Caraccioli and his team at Caraccioli Cellars, best known for their awesome grower fizz, is a remarkable wine of gorgeous aromatic intensity and refinement with a dark fruit profile and exceptional balance. This special release** is from the upper most rows at their estate grown Escolle Vineyard, featuring a diverse selection of vines and clones that include 943 and a little 828 that heighten the energy and racy black fruits, making for a very distinct Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir that is fabulously expressive, but with sharp detailing and focus, the vintage was near perfect for Escolle and it really shows here with silky ripe flavors and vibrant lifting acidity. The nose seduced me, and I was already entranced even before this Pinot got to my palate, in fact I thought there might be some whole cluster, but I was wrong as this Hilltop is all de-stemmed fruit, though the bouquet is wildly intriguing with floral tones, spice and exotic dark fruited. Caraccioli says he has been using some bigger format barrels and that this one saw some Puncheon and while 50% new French oak was used this is absolutely joyously not oaky on the palate. Complex with layers of black cherry, wild plum, pomegranate and bramble berry fruits, Asian and baking spices, including shaved cinnamon stick, along with briar notes, mineral elements, earl grey and a hint of smoky Francois Freres wood all make this an irresistible Pinot Noir that certainly raises Caraccioli into the serious league of SLH producers. Attention to yields and meticulous sorting with micro lots, Caraccioli Cellars are getting the most out of Escolle and the passion of place shines through in the wines.

As mentioned Caraccioli Cellars are making some of America’s best Sparkling wines and have already become local legends with their grower producer methode champenoise wines, with both their Cuvee Brut and Brut Rosé being outstanding bubbly, and even more uniquely they are some of the only single vineyard Champagne style sparklers available in the country. Caraccioli’s site was planted in March of 2008 and the Escolle Vineyard is 124 acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, as they put it, grounded in the northern Santa Lucia Highlands on the regions sandy loamy soils. Caraccioli Cellars planted the vineyard with a variety of clone and root stock options, giving the winery and its customers for grapes a flexibility in style has led to Escolle making a quick impact here, with many talented local winemakers enjoying their fruit from here including Ian Brand, Jim Schultze of Windy Oaks and Russell Joyce, all making sublime Chardonnay from Escolle grapes. Caraccioli’s still wines seem to get better with each vintage and this one is very pretty Pinot Noir and their new 2017 Escolle Chardonnay is showing well also with a steely streak of minerallity and creamy texture. Learned from stars of the Santa Lucia Highlands, the Caraccioli’s put the utmost care into the tending of the vines and the farming here is so good that Escolle rivals the Cru sites, namely Rosella’s, Garys’, Soberanes, Sierra Mar, Double L as well as Tondre and surpassing Sleepy Hollow, out here for grape quality, this hands on, studied and hand crafted approach has paid off, especially with the 2017 vintage and in particular in this limited bottling. **Note: This was a preview sample, look for it this fall, thank you Scott Caraccioli for sharing this beauty.
($N/A) 94+ Points, grapelive

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