Loving Calera; Loving Limestone; but not the Chardonnay

First, once again, I have to preface this Chardonnay wine review by saying, I am not a huge fan of California Chardonnays. I’m just not. I don’t know why, but there is just a certain taste that comes from a Chardonnay that does not make my mouth happy under normal circumstances. Hence, you can pretty much ignore how I feel about this wine.

Really Love the Calera Winery and What They Do

The Calera Winery has been growing their own Chardonnay grapes since 1984. Winemaker Josh Jensen spent over two years hunting for the perfect limestone filled land to grow his grapevines finally deciding on acreage 90 miles south of San Francisco and about 25 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean.   In 1990 the U.S. government approved the Mt. Harlan American Viticultural Area where Calera is the only vineyards and Jensen truly became king of his own limestone mountain.   

The several million tons of limestone deposit of greatly influences not only the wine, but the whole winery as “Calera” is the Spanish world for “limekiln As limestone had been commercially quarried from the property 100 years earlier, the evidenced is proven by the  recently restored 30 foot tall masonry calera, This also serves as the winery’s symbol, name and appears on every bottle of wine. (more…)