2021 Talley San Luis Obispo Coast Pinot Noir

Talley Vineyards is a 177-acre estate in the southern part of San Luis Obispo County, on the Central California Coast. The family-run winery produced its first commercial vintage in 1986, but the Talley family has been involved in agriculture in the area since 1948, when Oliver Talley founded Talley Farms and started growing vegetables. Oliver’s son Don planted the family’s first wine grapes in 1982 and a state-of-the-art winery was completed in 1991. Today the third generation of the family is part of the business. Talley Vineyards produces 30,000 cases annually and most of it is Chardonnay or Pinot Noir. Talley wines earn glowing reviews and Wine Advocate has noted that “Talley remains one of the great estates in California that has yet to be fully discovered.”

Central Coast AVA is a huge wine producing area that extends from Santa Barbara County in the south to San Francisco in the north. With more than 100,000 vineyard acres, it includes parts of six counties near the Pacific Ocean. Nearly 20 smaller AVAs lie within the Central Coast AVA. Central Coast earned appellation status in 1985. Included in the appellation are parts of the counties of Contra Costa, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz. Nearly every grape varietal grown in California is grown somewhere in the Central Coast AVA, though Chardonnay accounts for nearly 50% of the entire wine grape crop.

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.