2009 Calera Pinot Noir Central Coast

The 2009 Pinot Noir bursts from the glass with expressive red fruit, flowers, spices and mint. It shows lovely mid-palate juiciness and an elegant, polished finish. At $24 a bottle, it may very well be the single finest value in American Pinot Noir. I was hardly surprised to learn Emirates chose to serve this wine in their business class cabin last year. This is a dazzling wine from start to finish. It is also one of the two Pinots in this tasting (the others are 2008s) made from fully destemmed fruit. Wow! Anticipated maturity: 2011-2016. 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