Vöcal Vineyards Lilo Vineyard
Pinot Noir Reserve 2015
Wine Info
Region: Santa Cruz Mountains, CA, USA
Grapes: Pinot Noir 100%
ABV: 12.5%
Winemaker: Ted Glennon
Viticulture: Organically farmed 30 year old vineyard overlooking the Pacific ocean
Winemaking: 15% Whole cluster wild yeast fermentation, 19 months in used puncheon barrels
“Redwood, cedar and strawberry.”
The Lilo vineyard is surrounded by redwood trees, and the winemaker, our friend Ted Glennon, swears you can smell a little redwood on this wine.
Pinot Noir takes a lot of effort to grow. The grape is thin-skinned and prone to rot, heat, frost, and all sorts of other grape maladies. But the rewards are worth it: a wine like this is what happens when a great vineyard is shepherded by conscientious winemaking.
The core of classic Pinot Noir notes are here: red fruit like fresh cherries, huckleberries and tart strawberries. This wine is certainly woodsy, beyond that redwood note you can smell cedar, vanilla and tonka bean. A light herbal note of thyme and sagebrush rounds out this wine. Part of what makes great Pinot Noir is a balance of elements. You can’t just have “big fruit,” you need a wine with acidity, grip, and juiciness all working in tandem, and we knew this wine had it all when we tasted it.
This is a perfect roast chicken wine, and perhaps the bottle out of this release that is the most precious. At five years of age, it’s firing on all cylinders and absolutely ready to rock.
suggested pairings.
in partnership with Simply Real Health
We’ve partnered with Sarah Adler of Simply Real Health to provide recipes for all the wines in the July box. Sarah is a cookbook author, nutritional coach, and blogger who focuses on pure, natural ingredients in her cooking. We’ve been admiring her work for a long time and were so excited to collaborate on pairings with her! We hope you enjoy these summery, fresh recipes and make them alongside the wines in the July release.
Smoked Salmon Fettucine Alfredo
I saw this recipe and immediately thought of Pinot Noir. Salmon and Pinot Noir is a quintessentially west coast pairing. You can catch fresh salmon close to almost anywhere Pinot Noir is grown on the Pacific coast, including Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Oregon, and Santa Barbara. So smoked salmon and a creamy cashew alfredo sauce was a logical pairing for a nice, textured red like this. It’s not huge and over-the-top, but it’s also not shy.
Further Pairings
Throw any white meat on the grill with a wine like this. Or just relish in its luscious complexity and silkiness.
Music: “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Brothertiger
As far as covers go, this one’s pretty dope. It’s a mood.
Learn with the Circle
Join us on Youtube as we discuss the nuances of this wine and all the fun things that make it unique.
- Jackson