Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series that began with A look at Calera Winery on the eve of its 50th anniversary.
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When I first sat down to interview Calera winemaker Mike Waller, neither one of us noticed he was wearing an Eden Rift hat until halfway through taking the photos for the article. He quickly changed to a Calera hat, but it is a hint of the relationship between Waller and the other two Cienega Valley wineries: his brother, Cory Waller, is Eden Rift’s winemaker, and Al DeRose of DeRose Winery is a close friend.
“I scratch your back, you scratch mine,” Waller said. “If I need another tank, I can call Cory or Al and say, ‘Hey, I ran into a problem.’ And they can call me up as well. We don’t have any secrets. We’re all making different wines and appreciate each other’s wines.”
Another reason Waller feels no sense of competition is because he has something that the other two do not: the vineyards of Mt. Harlan, founded in 1975 by then-owner Josh Jensen.
“We have the only vineyard in that AVA (American Viticultural Area), Waller said, “so our competition is basically us and our need to keep up the quality. And our wines have a great following. We’re not taking each others’ customers away.”
While Mt. Harlan is famous for its six pinot noir vineyards—Selleck, Reed, Jensen, Mills, de Villiers and Ryan—there is also a chardonnay vineyard on the peak planted in 1984. We started our tasting with the 2021 Mt. Harlan Chardonnay, which exemplifies one of the characteristics Waller strives for in his winemaking.
“A great wine has tension in the middle,” he said. “Tension is really what holds a wine together. This one has that tension, with layers of complexity, depth, and good acid running through it. Swirl in your mouth, and you are going to have complex flavors continuing on for 20 or 30 seconds.”
The wine spends 15 months in 30% new French oak undergoing malolactic fermentation to soften the tartness. This results in subdued tropical fruit characteristics, a bit of green apple, a base of limestone minerality, and a full and lingering finish.
“When I got here, they were only aging it for nine months,” Waller said. “Aging for 15 gives it so much more depth. Before, there had been no real thought of producing a great chardonnay, so I am really proud of this one.”
The Ryan Vineyard, planted on the western side of the property in 1998, is the youngest of the Mt. Harlan pinot noir vineyards and, as a result, tends to be the first ready to harvest.
“When I first came here,” Waller said, “we thought the highest spot had really great exposure, and that was the spot to pick first. We started realizing it’s actually the bottom spot because of how the sun hits in the afternoon.”
We tried the 2021 Mt Harlan Ryan Vineyard Pinot Noir, which had a great dark fruit aroma that jumped out of the glass, a compelling youthful structure, a mouthfeel centered on rich cherries and blackberries, and a gorgeously lingering finish.
“A lot of our big-time loyal customers will lay these down for 15-20 years,” Waller said. “But not everybody can do that, so I am also trying to make wines that are very approachable at a younger age.”
Tasting the previous vintage, the 2020 Mt Harlan Ryan Vineyard Pinot Noir, there was already a slight but distinct shift from bright fruit to a more toned-down dark fruit and a more layered smoothness. Waller then brought out the 2007 Mt Harlan Ryan Vineyard Pinot Noir, one of the first wines he ever made for Calera, and it was almost impossible to reconcile that the three wines were related.
The fruit became deeper and took on more of a dried-fruit tone, with added hints of chocolate and herbs. The already complex wine took on an astonishing softness and smoothness, floating in the mouth with the sensation of being absorbed. The finish was half-dream, half-reality, as it faded away almost before you noticed it was gone.
“That tension, it’s just spreading out, right?” Waller said. “So, it opens the wine up over time. In the beginning, the phenolics were really holding it together. The tannins that were up front have now softened, which happens as it ages.”
The de Villers vineyard was planted in 1997 on an east-facing slope with undulating hills, which Waller says makes it difficult to pick.
“I gotta go in and find the right spot,” he said. “So rather than picking a block, I might have to pick just ten rows. Then I have to go up in a couple of days, taste through grapes, and if there is another spot that is right, I’m gonna pick those.”
He searches for the right combination of pH, which measures the acidity of the grapes, and brix, which measures the sugar content.
“I go a couple times a week, looking at the progression,” he said. “Are these vines holding up? Are there still leaves out there? Are things getting better? What’s the weather for the next five days? A heat spike? I might want to get these up. Really cool weather? Can we let them go for another week?”
Tasting the 2019 de Villiers Pinot Noir, Waller described it as “leaning towards rhubarb and dark cherry, maybe even into Cherry Cola.” It has a springy aroma that carries into a robust fruitiness and a rounded mouthfeel backed with sharper tannins than the pinots produced from the other vineyards, a sign of the vineyard’s youth.
It provides a great counterpoint to the wines from the Selleck Vineyard, one of the three original 1975 plantings on Mt. Harlan, located on a northern part of the property on a south-facing slope. Waller describes the aroma of the 2020 Selleck Pinot Noir as “more like candied raspberry; it doesn’t seem super complex when you smell it, but it’s got kind of a brighter fruit character, and in the mouth, it’s just got layers and layers of complexity.”
It is a superb wine, but the 2020 Jensen Pinot Noir might have been my favorite wine of the tasting.
“Jensen is a lot of people’s favorite,” Waller said. “I think it’s really got the coolest fruit, robust, and it still has that tension.
It is difficult to describe; as you concentrate on one characteristic, it slips out of focus and is replaced by layers you had not been paying attention to before, like one of those odd optical illusions where you can only see the subject by not looking at it directly.
Waller said that if he were forced to pick a favorite vineyard, Jensen would probably be it, though it presents unusual problems.
“Jensen was actually planted in four different blocks,” Waller said, “and they all have different exposures. It looks like an amphitheater, facing northwest, southwest, and southeast. You might have six weeks between the first and the last pick.”
The wine’s aroma is subdued but has its own deep richness. The flavors of red and black cherries, dried fig and strawberries, and raspberries, raspberries, and more raspberries instantly coat your mouth and then vanish, bringing a stately elegance to the palate.
“I think there are things that I understand after working here for 17 years,” Waller said. “You start to know how to get the most out of the vines and their characteristics, working with them and walking the vineyard. But the credit goes to Josh Jensen, was almost a genius for planting where he did, up here on Mt. Harlan.”
Calera is donating a barrel of Mt Harlan Mills Pinot Noir and Mt Harlan Chardonnay to the 68th Annual Wine & Food Tasting for auction, which will be held on Saturday, August 24, from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. at Swank Farms.
Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
BenitoLink thanks our underwriters, Hollister Super and Windmill Market, for helping to expand the Eat, Drink, Savor series and give our readers the stories that interest them. Hollister Super (two stores in Hollister) and Windmill Market (in San Juan Bautista) support reporting on the inspired and creative people behind the many delicious food and drink products made in San Benito County. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.
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