Calera Wine Company

The 14.4 acre Mills Vineyard isn’t among the first that Calera founder Josh Jensen planted, but the vines nevertheless are more than 20 years old. The vineyard was planted on its own roots, using cuttings from other Calera vineyards that were planted nine years earlier. The Mills Vineyard, like Calera’s other Mt. Harlan plots, has limestone soils, and the site is on a gentle, south-facing slope. The Mills Pinots usually have a characteristic spiciness.

That’s certainly true of the 2004, which displays spicy raspberry, cherry and rhubarb flavors and plenty of bright acidity. It’s a well-structured wine that still retains its suppleness. Like most of the other Calera Pinots, this one underwent whole-cluster fermentation. It spent 16 months in French oak barrels, 30 percent of them new. The Mills is a fairly ripe wine, at 15 percent alcohol, but it carries that alcohol extremely well and isn’t at all “hot.” This is one of the most plentiful single-vineyard Pinots that Calera produces – more than 1,200 cases in the 2004 vintage. And the price, $45, while not cheap, is more modest than for some of the other Calera wines.

Reviewed September 19, 2007 by Laurie Daniel.