2012 Hundred Acre Cherry Pie Stanly Ranch Pinot Noir, 3-bottle Lot

Hundred Acre is owned by Jayson Woodbridge, a winemaker who has been defying conventional wisdom about winemaking for years. He started Hundred Acre winery in St. Helena, California, and the Hundred Acre winery in the Barossa Valley, Australia. He makes single-vineyard, highly limited wines in both places. In California Hundred Acre is a Cabernet Sauvignon released only to the winery’s s mailing list. Hundred Acre’s first California vintage in 2000 earned praise from reviewers, and more recent vintages have earned very high scores from Robert M. Parker Jr., among others. Hundred Acre’s signature wine from California is the Kayli Morgan Vineyard Cab. The signature AU wine is the single vineyard Ancient Way Shiraz. Woodbridge is also the entrepreneur behind the Cherry Pie and Layer Cake wine labels. Cherry Pie is a Pinot Noir from Carneros and Layer Cake is a value-priced portfolio of varietals.

Carneros AVA, also known as Los Carneros, is at the southern end of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys at the top of the San Francisco Bay. The 8,000 vineyard acres are mostly planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, both of which thrive in the district’s cool, marine climate. Carneros became an AVA in 1983 and it has attracted foreign wine companies along with local producers. It has been especially appealing to European producers of sparkling wines including the giant Spanish cava producers Codorniu and Frexinet, and the French Champagne house Taittinger. Codorniu in Carneros is called Artesa, and Frexinet’s Carneros brand is Gloria Ferrer. Taittinger calls its Carneros winery Domaine Carneros. The European producers also make still wines in Carneros.

This red wine is relatively light and can pair with a wide variety of foods. The grape prefers cooler climates and the wine is most often associated with Burgundy, Champagne and the U.S. west coast. Regional differences make it nearly as fickle as it is flexible.