Description
The Santa Lucias, on the western edge of the Salinas Valley are well
known for pumping out the essence of fruit-forward, unctuous, juicy –
and let’s just admit it, a tad callipygian – Pinot Noir, highly prized by
America’s Pinot Noir fanboys/girls whose jelly is a little extra jam. But
up in the Gabilan Range, above the eastern side of the valley, in the
diminutive Chalone appellation just to the southwest of the granitic
spires of the Pinnacles National Park, an entirely different, even more
compelling stripe of Pinot Noir emerges. The weathered granitic
debris from those volcanic formations commingled with veins of
calcareous rock, the compressed remains of marine organisms from
seabed uplifted by ancient tectonic activity, yields wines which, as at
Enz on the other side of the Gabilan Range, resist easy varietal
identification. We have observed that the Pinot Noirs from Rodnick
Farm somehow recall the Nebbiolo-based wines of Alto Piemonte,
with their roasted, meaty tones overlying tart cherry fruit, and a silken
texture earned only with time, and exceptional terroir. Come to Chal-
one if lava bombs, rather than fruit bombs, are your jam. The 2021
combines younger blocks of Pommard and 114, with older blocks of
the Swan and Chalone 46 clones planted by the late Dick Graff in
1986. Kurt Gollnick and Janet Rogers purchased the property from
Bob Antle, and have continued to farm it -and Dick Graff’s old kitchen
garden -organically, with all necessary attendant heritage breeds of
sheep and herding dogs adding local color, compost, and legit regen-
erative farming bragging rights. Native ferment, bottled unfiltered.
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