What's Pressoir Drinking: Preview of the Upcoming Calera Session

9/22/2022

Raj Vaidya

In a few short weeks I will be hosting a vertical tasting of the historic Reed Vineyard bottling from Josh Jensen’s Calera Winery. I really can’t wait to pull these corks, as the Calera winery has been responsible for many of the greatest California wines I’ve tasted throughout my career. I had the honor of meeting Josh a number of times over the years, though the most recent meeting was a shared panel at a seminar on ‘balanced’ Pinot Noir way back in 2014. He made a comment that day about how when he started out making ‘Burgundian’ style wines back in the early 70’s, (prior to the rise of critics like Parker, etc, who favored richer and sweeter wines) the taste of consumers leaned more towards light wines with a fruit forward palate. His wines stood out because he was using some whole cluster fermentation at the time, a technique he discovered he loved while working in Burgundy, so they always had a more savory character. Josh passed away this past spring, leaving behind a tremendous legacy of exceptional vintages in California.

We were able to source 12 vintages of the Reed Vineyard directly from the winery for our upcoming Session, and as I started to prepare some notes for that evening I was reminded of the last time I was able to share a bottle of Josh’s wine with friends. Back in the summer of 2021, Daniel and I visited the Lafarge family for a weekday lunch with their team. I always love bringing a bottle of something to surprise the Burgundians from other regions, and on this occasion I brought a 1991 Calera Mills Vineyard Pinot.

We were having a typical summer lunch that day, with several plates of jambon persillé, a parsley studded Burgundian terrine, plus a salad of tomatoes and roasted chicken thighs with garlic. The Calera started out a bit shy, with aromas of smoke and hay, mostly savory. After a half hour of the bottle being open it started to blossom, showing notes of small, mountain strawberries, menthol spice (probably from the whole clusters) and bramble. It had tremendous complexity and length; Fred Lafarge commented that he could easily mistake this for an old fashioned wine from Volnay or Chambolle, with great aromatics but some spice and tannins.
The table was large, as the whole vineyard team joined us that day, and so the bottle disappeared quickly once opened. Fred opened a bottle of Clos du Château des Ducs after we polished off the Mills for good measure. It was a gorgeous, sunny and warm summer day in Volnay, a perfect setting for such special and great wines shared with amazing people!

We sourced 12 vintages in perfect condition from the Calera library to share with you! Tickets available via www.pressoir.wine. I look forward to welcoming you…