Monticello Vineyards|Corley Family Napa Valley

The Corley family’s Monticello Vineyard in the Oak Knoll District just outside the city of Napa, is about the farthest north in the Napa Valley that one can find good Pinot Noir grown these days. That’s because the district is still cool enough to produce this tender variety that is so susceptible to the capriciousness of the climate, and craves a cooler vineyard.

So, what we have here is a round, elegant, deep-flavored Pinot with substantial texture and wonderful fruit with complex notes. The wine, with a lot of depth, is perhaps one of the closest any Napa Valley producer has come to making a Burgundian-like Pinot Noir.

The source of the fruit came from two blocks of the Monticello vineyard planted to five different Dijon clones – the material of choice for Pinot Noirs made outside of Burgundy. The wine was aged in French barrels for 16 months. The stated alcohol is 14.2 percent and there were 1,750 cases produced.

Reviewed March 26, 2008 by Alan Goldfarb.