Not only do I believe that the Pinot Noir wines from Calera are some of the best in California, but the story of how this historic winery and vineyard came to be is equally compelling. Here is quick recap of the visionary story of Josh Jensen and his successor winemaker, Mike Waller.
Upon returning from a wine trip to Burgundy in 1971, Josh Jensen spent two years driving up and down the coast of California in search of a location that had limestone soil and the right climate and altitude to grow world class pinot noir grapes. This is because the most famous pinot noir wines in the world are planted in limestone soil, but it is very rare in California.
Eventually in 1974, Josh found a hilltop composed of limestone in a remote location called Mt. Harlan, 100 miles south of San Francisco and 37 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. He purchased the land and invested all of his savings in planting pinot noir vines by hand. He lived for years in a small camper trailer, causing his wife to leave him, as he continued his crazy quest.
However, after years of toil, he eventually crafted a series of pinot noir wines that he named, ‘Calera,’ the Spanish word for ‘limestone.’ The resulting wines are so distinctive, tasting of dark cherries and earthy minerality, that they prompted wine critic, Robert Parker, to deem Josh Jensen as “one of the most compelling Pinot Noir specialists of not only the New World, but of Planet Earth.”
Fast forward to today where Mike Waller, who started making wine with Josh Jensen in 2007 as assistant winemaker, has now taken the helm as Head Winemaker of Calera winery. (Josh passed in 2022 at the age of 76.). I caught up with Mike recently in a phone interview, and was impressed to learn that not much has changed.
“I continue to be committed to Josh’s vision. It’s really about this site, with its limestone base and cool mountaintop climate. We’re letting the vineyards speak for themselves. It’s very classic winemaking. We’ve been farming organically since early on and have been stewards of the land since the beginning,” reported Mike Waller.
But Calera actually only makes a small amount of wine from Mt. Harlan, about 5,000 cases. The bulk of Calera’s production is from vineyards all along the Central Coast of California. Therefore, if you really want to taste the pinot noirs coming from the special limestone soil of Mt. Harlan, you have to read the Calera wine label very carefully, because the font stating the wine is from ‘Mt. Harlan,’ is quite small.
However, the price of Calera Mt. Harlan pinot noir is much higher (ranging from $95 to $125 per bottle) compared to the Calera Central Coast pinot noir that you can find in wine shops and high-end grocery stores ($32 per bottle).
Crafting Calera Pinot Noir
For Mike Waller, however, like many winemakers, all of his wines are important to him. “I’m sourcing the grapes for Calera Central Coast from many different vineyards, so it calls for very good logistics skills, but with the Mt. Harlan grapes, I’m really letting the specific vineyard block shine through.”
Mike actually compares making pinot noir wine to playing music. “I grew up here, near Hollister, and I knew I was going to make pinot from early on. Pinot noir is like jazz. It is the final frontier, because pinot noir reflects where it’s grown. I found that I can riff on it.”
And staying with the musical analogy, Mike does have different ‘instruments’ in the Mt. Harlan vineyard to play upon, because it is divided into six blocks, that each offer their own distinctive taste and style – very much like the small vineyard blocks in Burgundy.
They are called Jensen, Selleck, Ryan, Reed, Mills and de Villiers.
“Josh named them after people who impacted him regarding wine,” explained Mike. “Jensen was his father, Selleck is the California collector who introduced Josh to wine, Ryan was his longtime vineyard manager, Reed a close family friend, Mills built the infrastructure on the property that would one day become part of Calera’s gravity-flow winery, and de Villiers is named for the author of the book, ‘The Heartbreak Grape,’ which describes how Josh created Calera.”
All of the Mt. Harlan wines have a long history of garnering high ratings from critics, typically rating in the low to mid 90’s. The Calera Mt. Harlan Jensen vineyard was even featured in the famous ‘Drops of God’ movie and Japanese manga comic book as the second wine to be paired against the legendary Domaine Romanée-Conti (DRC). The book’s hero, Joe, proclaimed it as being even better than DRC.
“Japan is still one of our biggest export markets because of the ‘Drops of God’ manga,” said Mike Waller.
Tasting Calera Pinot Noir
I had the opportunity to taste three Calera pinot noirs. The first was the 2022 Calera Central Coast Pinot Noir, which is very approachable with ripe plum, black cherry, vanilla and allspice wrapped up in a rich velvety texture. A true crowd pleaser.
The other two were both sourced from Mt. Harlan and designed to please the connoisseur, collector, and those who enjoy a taste of the terroir on the palate. The first was the 2020 Calera Mt Harlan Pinot Noir Ryan Vineyard. This wine seduces with a nose of pure raspberry, plum blossom, and a hint of sage. The palate is a complex blend of raspberry pith, allspice, clove, black tea and savory umami notes. The wine is light bodied with well integrated toasty oak, silky tannins and a mouthwatering acidity. Very intriguing now, with the potential for long aging.
The third wine was the 2020 Calera Mt. Harlan Pinot Noir Mills Vineyard. This one has a richer, riper expression of red and black cherry, plum and hints of blueberry, tobacco, earth and leather. It has a medium body, hints of toasted oak, and is both lush and elegant, with the potential to age and evolve.
Mike Waller mentioned that even though the 2020 vintage was troublesome for some regions of California due to smoke from wildfires, it didn’t impact Calera Mt. Harlan grapes. “We didn’t have direct smoke in the vineyard, but had smoky skies, so we tested every single wine that year with ETS labs. We discovered that Mt. Harlan wines didn’t have smoke taint,” he said.
What’s Next for Calera Winery?
So what’s next for Calera winery? Since being purchased by The Duckhorn Portfolio in 2017, Mike says that they have continued to operate as an independent winery, but with more financial assistance for winery equipment and vineyard upgrades. Plus, the distribution network has expanded, allowing them to increase the production of the Calera Central Coast wines.
Mt. Harlan, however, is a finite place. Like the small and precious vineyards of Burgundy, there is very little room for expansion on the remote limestone hilltop where Josh Jensen had a vision to make one of the best pinot noirs in America. And perhaps this is a good thing.
NOTE: This story was originally published in Forbes.com. Republished here with permission.