The story of Hollister’s Calera Wine Company begins with founder Josh Jensen pouring over survey maps for two years, trying to find an area in California with similar geology and climate to the Burgundy region in France, where he had apprenticed at the prestigious Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) winery, considered by many to be one of the finest wineries in the world.
Jensen came to DRC in 1970 with no winemaking experience, having studied history at Yale University and anthropology at Oxford University. After less than two years, he returned to the United States to start his own winery, searching for a place with the limestone soil that creates the finest pinot noirs.
“Any place a grapevine has to struggle, it produces more intense fruit,” said Calera winemaker Mike Waller. “In limestone soil, you have more drainage so not a lot of water availability. The roots have to go deeper into the soil and it helps with the complexity of the grapes.”
In 1974, Jensen found Mt. Harlan, a dome of limestone and the location of an old lime kiln (“calera,” in Spanish). Limestone is burned to produce quicklime, an ingredient in everything from steelmaking to glass to cement—even food. Limestone is formed on the bottom of the ocean, but seismic events in geologic time pushed Mt. Harlan up into a ridge standing 2,200 feet above sea level.
The first vineyards, with pinot noir vines, were planted on Mt. Harlan in 1975. There were three: Selleck (5 acres), Reed (5 acres), and Jensen (14 acres). Those three vineyards are still the pride of the winery.
That same year, Calera produced its first wine, 1,000 cases of zinfandel, made from purchased grapes. The first vintage from the newly planted vines did not arrive until 1978, when the first bottles, labeled California Pinot Noir Table Wine, were released.
One of the unique features of the winery is the gravity flow system installed next to the tasting room. The grapes are crushed at the top of the seven-tier structure, then allowed to descend through the remaining tiers, from fermentation through barreling, by force of gravity, with no pumps involved at any stage.
“You want to ease the time you are putting it through a pump,” Waller said. “The wine is treated extremely kindly throughout the entire process. It doesn’t make it easy on the workers going up and down—they stay in shape. But the wine tends to retain its structure and backbone and it is allowed to express itself.”
Waller came to Calera in 2007, after serving as assistant winemaker at Chalone Vineyards in Monterey County for three years. Discovering they shared a similar approach to creating wine, in 2009 Jensen named him Calera’s winemaker. Waller remained in that role after Jensen sold the winery to Duckhorn Wine Company in 2017.
“As winemakers, at first when we are tasting and smelling wine, we are looking for flaws,” Waller said. “Once you get past that, you start looking for nuances. What I look for in the wine is the most expressive fruit you can have but with tension in the middle which carries the wine for a lot longer in the mouth. Especially with the wines that people will be laying down for 10 or 20 years. To me, that is what makes a powerful wine—that balance between the fruit and the tension.”
Though Calera has an on-site lab for testing the grapes as they progress to wine, the key to Waller’s vintages lies more in an intimate knowledge of the characteristics of each block of vines.
“Science is a tool you use,” Waller said. “But I see myself more as a craftsman. I don’t see myself as an artist; I am not Picasso painting a picture here. I think anyone can make wine. But you have to understand numbers as well as flavors but not take them too seriously because every vintage is different.”
Mike’s brother Cory is the winemaker for nearby Eden Rift winery. Michelin-starred chef Jarad Gallagher, of San Juan Bautista’s Smoke Point BBQ, once told me, “If you have the opportunity to drink wine made by the Waller brothers, grab it.”
I had the good fortune to be joined at my tasting at Calera by both brothers, as well as assistant winemaker Amy Gill and sales manager Danielle Burke.
The Wines of Calera
2018 Mt. Harlan Chardonnay ($55) “We are known for our pinots,” said Waller, “but I take more pride in the chardonnays. I feel that there is more you can do in the cellar to manipulate the grapes and the wine. With pinot, you put them in the barrel, top them, then leave them alone. With chardonnay, it is a question of how much you stir the lees, when you pull it out of the barrel—it’s more hands-on.” This is a nicely balanced, austere wine with subdued fruit, a touch of minerality, some bright acid, and a long finish. It would go very well with pork loin served with apple risotto, pasta served with pesto, or a handful of smoked almonds.
2018 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir ($50) The grapes for this wine are purchased from vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County. “We thought we would showcase some of the other vineyards we like,” said Waller, “This is exclusively for our wine club and tasting room, not for the general market. It is not a typical Calera wine and we don’t make a lot of it, but it is fun to have.” It’s a full bodied wine with a beautiful ruby-red color and a rich fruity taste, with plum and berry notes. This is a lunchtime get-together wine perfect with grilled foods. The self-confidence of the wine would allow for a range of foods, from burgers and potato salad to steak and grilled stuffed mushrooms.
2017 Mt. Harlan Pinot Noir de Villiers Vineyard ($75) The de Villers vines were planted in 1997 and the wine has an appealing youthful spirit. “This is probably the most fruit-forward wine we make,” Waller said. “You will notice more tannin but there is a soft, velvety finish. It is something you can buy now and lay down for 15 years or so.” This pinot is aggressive and distinctive, with a slightly cedar aroma, a deep penetrating flavor, and a smooth finish. There are hints of blackberry and black tea that fill the mouth without the tannins sucking it dry. It is an easily approachable wine that would go well with veal scallopini but would pair well with Italian foods such as cannelloni or ricotta stuffed shells as well as Mexican foods such as carne asada.
2017 Mt. Harlan Pinot Noir Mills Vineyard ($100) The vines that produce the grapes for this wine are unique—they are the only vines planted on their own roots. “I asked Josh the reason for that,” Waller said, and he told me ‘In 1984, we didn’t have a lot of money so we just planted them.’ Because it is on its own roots, it struggles a bit more, with a low tonnage per acre.” This is a very soft wine that has a hard-to-describe impact on the mouth—it just flows and absorbs with an unmatched smoothness. Any strong food pairing would overpower the subtle flavors so I would keep it simple: warm french bread with brie, pasta with a mild red sauce, dark chocolate—anything that will keep this wine as the star of the show.
2017 Mt. Harlan Pinot Noir Jensen Vineyard ($100) The Jensen vineyard, one of the three original vineyards at Calera, has exposure to the sun at four different angles. This complicates the harvest, which is done over the course of six weeks, as the grapes ripen in the different blocks. “We have to do several different picks and each one is a snapshot of the vineyard at that moment,” Gill said. “At the end, we have three different expressions of that vineyard that we get to play with, to marry all of those together to create a stellar wine.” Wine critic Jeb Dunnuck gave this wine a score of 99 points, describing it as “stunning in every way.” It’s a luxurious wine, structured but with elegance and grace and is a great sipping wine. If you are going to serve it with food, it requires something equally fine, like a grilled beef tenderloin with mushrooms.
2007 Mt. Harlan Pinot Noir Selleck Vineyard ($105) This wine was a bit of a bonus. After we tasted the 2017 Jensen, Waller left for a moment and came back with an amazing treat—the very first wine he oversaw at Calera and a wine praised by influential critic Robert Parker. “This was the last vintage where Parker was rating pinots and he gave it a 98,” Waller said. “I thought, ‘Well, I guess I will have a job here for a while.’ We think about these scores like ‘whatever,’ but when you get one like that from someone of his position, it gives you validation.” In his review, Parker described it this way: “Sassafras, black cherry, raspberry, plum, pomegranate, cedar, and underbrush aromas are accompanied by a full-bodied, ripe wine with beautiful acids, an intense underlying minerality/terroir character, and a long finish.” Being a library wine, only available at the winery, it was an honor to drink it. Having tried the younger wines, which were fine in their own right, this one comes across like a senior statesman, refined and confident without overstating itself. It is overwhelmingly beautiful and I would drink it on its own to savor its incredible complexity and subtly.
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May 31, 2021 at 12:36AM
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Eat, Drink, Savor: The compelling pinot noirs of Calera Wine Company - Benitolink: San Benito County News
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