2008 De Villiers Pinot Noir

The 2008 Pinot Noir de Villiers Vineyard flows from the glass with layers of dark cherries, menthol, licorice and tobacco. It is a wonderfully fleshy, expressive Pinot to drink now and over the next decade. Despite the richness of the fruit, there is more than enough structure for this to drink well for quite some time. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2020. I was deeply impressed with the wines I tasted from Josh Jensen and Calera. Vintage 2008 was not an easy one, as a severe spring frost reduced yields to less than one ton per acre. Most of the Pinots are made with 100% whole clusters. I am not sure each of these sites is ideally suited to such a high percentage of stem inclusion, especially in this vintage, but time will tell. Calera has what are easily the most informative back labels I have ever seen, with much more information and detail on each wine than I can reproduce here. Kudos to Josh Jensen for providing his customers with the maximum level of detail one could ever ask for. Unfortunately I was not able to taste the Chardonnays, but I will report on those wines as soon as possible. Tel. (831) 637-9170; www.calerawine.com

MASSES of information on the back label! Jewelly nose – really burgundian! Lovely flavours and full of excitement and tension. Carries its alcohol well. Just a little tannic and dry farmed on the end. (JR)