2013 Bernardus Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands

2013 Pinot Noir in Santa Lucia Highlands: Big, Bold, and Voluptuous

In 1951, John Steinbeck described the Santa Lucia Highlands as “like heaven” in East of Eden. That same year, Eddie and Jane Pisoni began farming vegetables in the Salinas Valley. Their son Gary Pisoni graduated from college and immediately booked a one-way ticket to Paris, anxious to get as far away as possible from Salinas.

After touring Burgundy and knocking on as many cellar doors as he could from Gevrey-Chambertin to Nuits-Saint-Georges, Gary returned home and told his dad that he wanted to plant Pinot Noir on the family’s cattle ranch. A baffled Eddie put up a fight, but Gary wouldn’t bend. In 1982, the Pisonis planted 5 acres of Pinot Noir on mountainous terrain overlooking the Salinas Valley floor, a vineyard that Robert Parker would go on to call one of very few “grand cru” vineyards on the coast.

Further south in the Highlands, another extraordinary Pinot Noir would catch Parker’s attention. Gary Franscioni’s 44-acre Sierra Mar Vineyard had been part of his family’s 420-acre cattle ranch for four generations. Inspired both by Pisoni’s success and Gary Franscioni’s belief in the potential for high-altitude Pinot Noir-growing, the family broke ground in 2007.

At just over 1,000 feet in elevation, Sierra Mar is the most “extreme” vineyard in the AVA; it’s practically inaccessible to all but the longhorn cattle who once called it home. It has produced a bevy of 92- to 94-point single-vineyard Pinot Noirs, wowing The Wine Advocate, Burgundy expert Stephen Tanzer, and Antonio Galloni.

The mild but very dry 2013 growing season proved magical in Santa Lucia Highlands. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate noted that “these latest 2013s might just be the finest wines yet from this windy, cool, yet sunny region.” The two Garys’ vineyards thrived, as both Pisoni and Sierra Mar turned out their richest and most powerfully structured Pinot Noirs to date. But perhaps the vintage’s greatest beneficiary was winemaker Dean De Korth at Bernardus. De Korth crafted deep, dark, fabulously brooding single-vineyard Pinot Noirs off Pisoni and Sierra Mar vineyards, earning 94- and 92-point scores, respectively — as well as the powerhouse 2013 Bernardus Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands, drawn from a blend of those excellent single-vineyard barrels.

Comprised of barrels of the Pisoni and Sierra Mar Pinot Noirs combined with the Rosella’s Vineyard Pinot Noir. Dark ruby. Lavish aromas of crushed red and black fruits, Indian spices, violets, and smoke. Bold and intensely concentrated on the attack, filled with dark wild-berry preserves, lavender, and dark plum. If your palate preference in Pinot Noir is for high-toned angularity, this may not be your cup of tea. But if you’re enamored of the full-throttle Pinot Noirs of Pisoni and Sea Smoke, Dean De Korth’s 2013 master blend is an absolute KNOCKOUT. Drink now-2023.

$38 on release. HALF-PRICE this morning. 1,200 bottles are up for grabs.

• ABV 14.50%
• Enjoy right away
• % Pinot Noir